Skywalker s weakness
by Jack Volcano
Summary: The emperor knows he must destroy Luke SKywalker after he destroyed the Death Star, so he sends his best agent for that task... Unaware of the plot against him, Luke crosses paths with a young redhead who fascinates him during one of his missions with the Rogue Squadron. Little touches of the expanded universe. I take some licenses.
1. The Emperor s hand

**Well… This is only a translating of my fic in Spanish with the same title… English is not my first language so if you can read Spanish I suggest you guys to go and check on it because, obviously, I think I can write better in Spanish than in English, but I will do my best xD**

 **Since the original fic was published yesterday I will still say… Happy force day! And May the Fourth be with you guys xD I have been thinking about writing a fic like this for a long time and today (yesterday) seemed like the best day to do it, am I right?**

 **Anyway, Star Wars is, y far, my favorite fandom and universe and I feel very comfortable writing about it so there wont be any muse problems (I hope). This fic will be focused on Luke and Mara´s relationship and it will start shortly after the battle of Yavin and the destruction of the first Death Star.**

 **I apologize now for any mistakes I can make while writing since I think I have a good English but of course since It is not the language I use to speak I probably am not as good as any English speaker so… sorry for that and I ask you guys to be patient. Tell me in the reviews how to improve xD**

 **So, now that has been said, let´s go with the first chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any character, world or entity showed in this fic. Star Wars universe belong to Lucasfilms, Mr. God Lucas and Disney.**

 **Enjoy!**

The Emperor´s Hand

 _Imperial Palace (Coruscant) – Year 0_

A hooded figure, completely dressed in black robes, remained still in front of the window sitting on his throne. Two all skin and bones, white and wasted away hands could be seen under the large sleeves, resting on his lap while the man remained with his eyes closed, clearly he was deep in his thoughts.

Emperor Palpatine wasn´t used to defeat, especially to a total and astonishing defeat like the one he had suffered. Until that moment every single plan he made had turned out exactly how he foresaw, however, he didn´t count with Director Krennic´s incompetence or his over his head ego, allowing a well-known defector like Galen Erso to work on the project… The Sith Master was ninety hundred percent sure about the Death Star being able to go on and be finished even without the architect that happened to be the reason of the Empire´s most long expected project´s fall… Since the emperor had been working on that even before the clone wars started.

And then there was Tarkin… Honestly the emperor couldn´t have foreseen that continuous of bad decisions all at the same time made by one of the most condecorated Great Moffs in the army…. By destroying Alderaan for a demonstration Tarkin only had put the galaxy on alert, the rebels went out to fight desperately and seeking for vengeance, and Palpatine knew very well how strong could be the vengeance desire.

However, the biggest obstacle, one he could have never predicted, was the boy. Luke Skywalker… The son of the fallen Jedi Anakin Skywalker, and apparently Obi-Wan Kenobi himself had been his master. The very same moment the Death Star exploded Palpatine had sensed his power flow… The boy was powerful in the force, even if he hadn´t received any kind of training. It didn´t meant that he feared the fact of dealing with a new Jedi rookie, it was crystal clear that, regardless how powerful the young Skywalker was, he would never be able to challenge him. However, the perspective was quite uncomfortable, he knew that he needed to end the problem before the rebel alliance started gathering too much hope around their new hero. Vader seemed to have the impression of being easy to turn the boy to the Dark side… And he might be right, so the SIth Lord gave his apprentice permission to do what was necessary to achieve that goal, but he wasn´t completely sure about Vader´s methods, so he decided to start an alternative plan on his own, just in case.

Luckily, the emperor thought he knew pretty well the Skywalker kind, he had observed Anakin Skywalker grow and evolve for years, after all, in his mind he was sure about his son making the same mistakes, he just needed to rush the situation a little-. If his Intel was correct Skywalker was no more than a boy, powerful, indeed, but totally naïve, it wouldn´t be hard to play with his feelings and making those destroy him for good.

Palpatine opened his eyes when he sensed a presence behind the door, he showed a grin on his disfigured face, it was time to start his plan _"Enter, my child…"_ he didn´t need to use words, his mind connected perfectly with the person he was waiting. The throne room´s door opened and Palpatine´s throne turned around to face the person who was entering, the window being now behind him.

A young girl, she was no more than 20 years old, stepped into the room, immediately walking until she was in front of the throne and placed a knee on the floor, bowing his head "Master… How can I serve you?"

Mara Jade had lost count of how many times she had said those very same words, but she never imagined stopping doing it, and he didn´t want to either.

How could she? She was the Emperor´s Hand, his personal assassin, raised since he was 3 years old and trained with the only purpose of serving hi on the shadows, just like Darth Vader did it in public. She was the other side of the same coin, she eradicated the problems before they became a problem and Vader crushed them once they appeared. While she was kneeled Mara cursed himself for not having tied up her scarlet hair, now it was hanging and hiding her face and it was annoying, the emperor could see that as a lack of respect if she didn´t look at him in the eye when he started talking.

"Mara… I am very pleased to see you… Did you have a satisfactory trip?" he asked, but without allowing the girl to stand up, she just nodded lightly "Indeed… The revolutions on Naboo have been reduced, there wont be more insubordination."

Palpatine smiled, seeming pleased with the information "Good, good… You did well… Tarkin should have known that blowing up Alderaan would bring anger and battles in the systems that had friendship with it…" the hooded figure sighed a little, he didn´t like sending his assassin to clean other´s messes, it was a pity that Tarking was dead, he would have received a severe punishment otherwise by the emperor. Hearing those words Mara chewed her lower lip lightly "Master… With your permission… Do you… Approve Great Moff Tarkin´s actions?" she asked, her voice a little shattered. She knew that the emperor couldn´t control everything that happened in the empire, a lot of leaders and generals she had crossed paths with used to abuse the people… It was natural, power corrupts, Mara didn´t want to even imagine how the empire would be if any of those people were in charge instead of Palpatine. Actually, she was almost sure about Vader being the one approving that genocide without his master´s permission.

It took the emperor a few moments to answer, choosing his words carefully and trying them to sounds as sincere and affected as possible "Of course not… Moff Tarkin acted recklessly and he was arrogant, getting himself carried away by the immense power of the battle station under his command to try and achieve his goals… I assure you that, if he was still alive, he would have been severely punished." The redhead nodded, that was what she was expecting, she lived to try and help the empire´s citizens, and the emperor sent her where she was needed to do that, however, both the rebels and some corrupt empire officers seemed to be completely determined to alter the order and endanger innocent empire citizen´s lives. It sickened her that what the emperor was trying to build kept shaking because of the actions of some terrorists or incompetents like those. Palpatine frowned a little, ending the subject there and motioning with his hand Mara to stand up "Rise, my hand… I have a new mission for you, something different of what you have faced before."

Mara stood up, gratefully, and locked her emerald eyes on his master´s "Different?" she asked curiously.

The emperor was able to detect that sign of doubt in her voice, but he simply smiled "Indeed… I would never send anyone else on this mission but you, my child; you are the most qualified in the entire empire… Also, you have the luck of having grown up to become an incredibly beautiful woman." Mara blinked a few times, she was grateful of her master´s compliments, he was right after all, there weren´t a lot of people more qualified than her for any mission, except Vader, she would never be as powerful as a Jedi or a sith, of course, the emperor had been sure of not training her that way… She could be compared with one of his inquisitors, even though she hadn´t been gifted with a lightsaber yet. "Master?" the confusion on her voice when the young girl asked was clear… What did her being beautiful have to do with her mission? Palpatine seemed to guess what she was thinking because he let go a shivering and sinister laugh that echoed all over the throne room "My dear child… What I am going to ask you shouldn´t be a challenge for you, even though you are not very used to it…" Mara waited patiently for the nature of her mission to be revealed, she was starting to have some doubts about it, but then the emperor talked again "as you would know, the Death Star has been destroyed, and the only responsible, in more than one way, of that fact is a new enemy who has appeared in front of us, Luke Skywalker."

Mara Jade frowned, that last name was well known for her, Anakin Skywalker had been a high ranked Jedi general during the clone wars, no doubt he was exterminated during the purge as well "You want me to kill him, master?" Jade asked, determination in her voice, she was sure of being capable of doing it. But, for her surprise, the emperor shook his head "Oh, little one… Even though I appreciate your enthusiasm I would never send you on a mission like that… You are no match for Skywalker, his powers might still be precarious, but there is no doubt he has heritage his father´s strength in the force, I would never forgive myself if I lost you, my child…"

Palpatine added those last words using with the exact touch of worry enough for Mara to be forced to contain a little smirk. Her master was like her father, and listening that from him was comforting, however, she didn´t understand why he doubted her skills for that job "Master… I assure you my skills are more than enough for that task, you wont regret… Send me to kill Skywalker, I assure you I wont f…"

"¡I already said no!" the loud and cutting tone the Lord Sith used sent a shiver down Mara´s spine, who stood completely petrified on the spot. Palpatine´s anger was absolutely terrifying… She had scars all over her body as a proof for that, however, the emperor´s face softened as soon as Mara stopped talking "My child… My plan has much more implications than simply death… In fact, all the Skywalkers share the same weakness… And you and I, specially you, are going to take advantage of it."

 _Moving Rebel base "Home One" – six months later._

Luke was meditating, it wasn´t like he could do much more else apart from practice step by step every little force skill Ben taught him and try to improve with his lightsaber using that little training ball. Meditation was, by far, what he could do better, he had always been aware of his surroundings and now it was like his senses were more awoken than ever.

The alliance was not in it´s best moment… Less than a week ago Yavin 4´s base had fallen and the empire had captured general Dodonna during the attack.

" _Rogue squadron to the hangar!"_ the megaphones then cried _"Rogue squadron to the hangar!"_

Luke opened his eyes and stood up without wasting a moment, walking towards his cabinet to change into his orange flying suit, generally the high command didn´t assign so sudden missions, something very bad has to be happening… He walked fast towards the hangar and when he got there almost all his squadron was already there waiting for him… Rogue Squadron was founded by him and Wedge Antilles, the two only survivors of the first battle of Yavin, and was currently formed by both of the,, Wes Janson, Derek Klivia, Zev Senesca and Dak Ralter.

"Hey Boss" Wedge approached Luke, only Wes and Dak were missing, probably they probably got distracted, something Luke was not very happy about considering that what was happening seemed to be urgent "Do you know something about this? It´s weird… No mission was informed about apart from the weapon convoy the Renegade Squad was escorting."

The Jedi aspirant shook his head "I dunno, Wedge, I guess we will find out shortly" as soon as the two remaining pilots stepped into the hangar the general Crix Madine talked to them, he was an imperial officer who defected and happened to be a great active in the alliance considering all the Intel he could give. He didn´t mess around and started talking "We just got a help signal from the Renegade squadron… They have been ambushed, someway the empire knew our plans and they sent troops to intercept them, commander Narran has informed that they had very little chances of making it… You will be sent as backup to try and level the battle and, if possible, finish the current mission… The weapons and supplies the convoy is carrying could be essential for the alliance."

Luke frowned a little but nodded "Alright then… To the fighters!" once that order was given the other five pilots started running the final checks on their X-Wings and got on board, they found out that the coordinates to the Ison runner were already settled on their navicomputers, apparently there was there the renegades had been ambushed "May the force be with us" wished Luke to the intercom, soon enough hearing the agreeing mumbles from his pilots, just before taking flight and jumping to light speed.

It would take them around twenty minutes to reach their goal… Twenty minutes that seemed like an eternity to the worried X-Wing squadron pilots.

Finally, when the blue light spiral turned black again it was clear that the situation was not giving winning hopes for the rebels in combat. There was no sight of the convoy and there were only two X-Wings left battling at least twelve TIE fighters over Chorax planet. Even though it was surprising for them to find out some imperial destroyer recently destroyed by the Renegades.

" _This is Rogue Squadron, Renegades! Baclkup has arrived!"_ said luke to the intercom to all the revel channels in range _"Make groups of two! Dak, you´re with me! Wedge and Wes you go the other way, we four will try and divide the TIEs to toss them away from the Renegades! Zev, Derek, you two cover the Renegades, take down as much TIEs as you can!"_

" _Copy, Rogue Leader!"_ five voices cried at unison in the coms. With Dak on his tail, Luke speeded up and placed his wings on attack position, firing a barrage of blasters against the TIEs, forcing them to open their formation and allowing Zev and Derek to place their fighters between the imperials and the Renegades, starting to battle as well.

Dak and Luke managed to make four TIEs follow them and they already destroyed two with the first attack while Wedge and Wes dealt with other two. The Renegades alongside Zev and Derek didn´t seem to have any problems now, however, while Luke maneuvered to keep his fighter away form the green shots the Tie was tossing against him and trying to lock the imperial in firing range, one of the renegades spoke to him on the coms _"Rogue Leader! This is Renegade three! We appreciate the help but the transport Nonnah has crashed on Chorax system! It´s possible to save the crew and the cargo we gathered!"_

Luke tensed his lips for a moment _"Copy that, Renegade three… Dak, join Zev and Derek, I am going down to the planet… Rogues, cover me!"_

" _Copy that, Rogue leader!"_ with that, Luke speeded up again while a rain of red blasts covered him form possible TIE chasers. The young commander launched himself straight down towards the planet´s surface. Scanning possible signs of the transport. Finally he was able to locate the ship, or what was left of it, but he noticed that a TIE had been able to sneak out of the Rogues´ vigilance and follow him when he was almost obliterated by a rain of green shots. Luke clenched his teeth for a moment and executed a nearly impossible very close twist to the right, channeling the force to help him being precise. The TIE, being more maneuverable than the X-Wing, was able to follow him, but the pilot´s skills were clear there when the imperial pilot needed a few seconds to react, by that time, he was already in Luke´s firing range and allowing the rebel pilot to fire his blaster and make the TIE fighter explode.

Once he got rid of that annoying fighter Luke flew towards the place where he had located the Nonnah and he found a desolating scenario. The shuttle was completely shut down and half destroyed and the almost the entire crew had fallen defending it. In fact, it appeared like only one person was still standing and firing back to the imperial ground troopers attacking, while using the ship´s remainings for cover against the only AT-ST remaining. Luke could tell the crew had fought hard since there were a lot more imperial corpses than rebels, and also no less than two AT-STs and three AT-PTs destroyed on the ground. Luke didn´t hesitate and first he focused his fire on the walker, it didn´t take him long to destroy it. The imperial troops didn´t stand a chance against the air attack and they perished, in less than a minute the place was conflict free.

Luke landed his fighter and stepped out of it, approaching the broken Nonah shuttle, blaster in hand "Hello?! This is commander Skywalker! There are no imperials anymore!" a woman´s face appeared fro behind one of the fallen shuttle pieces, her gold-red hair shined under the sun and she seemed even younger than Luke himself. Her clothing was shuttered and she had taken an ugly shot on her right shoulder "I-Is it over?" she asked in a shaky voice.

Luke approached her carefully, trying and placing a comforting hand on her healthy arm "Yeah… It is over, mission accomplished… Are there any more survivors?" she shook her head when he asked, while some tears sliced down her cheeks from her emerald eyes. Luke closed his eyes; it was a terrible loss… Almost the entire Renegade Squadron and the convoy… "It´s okay… Don´t worry, I´m gonna get you out of here…" but without warning he found himself being hugged by the girl, while she sobbed lightly on his shoulder. Luke could understand her, she just saw all her partners being slaughtered, he didn´t know what to do but he tried to comfort her by giving little and clumsy taps on her back, trying to calm her down. It took a few seconds, but she finally calmed down and let Luke go, drying her tear, Luke gave her a soft smile "My name is Luke Skywalker… Yours?"

"Mara… Mara Jade"

 **And that´s it! Well, as some of you could notice (Some other maybe not) I changed what happened on the Ison runner Battle to adequate it t my story´s needs. I needed something like this for Luke and Mara to meet each other and this seemed like the best option, I also did some light modifications on Rogue Squadron.**

 **I apologize for any grammar/selling mistake but as I already said English is not my first language, I am working on getting a beta reader whose first language is indeed English so I hope I will get better xD**

 **Tell me how you like the story; you know reviews are useful and appreciated… I have most of the plot in my mind but I am open to suggestions about some changes/ways to include Mara on the original Trilogy´s events… Surprise me and your ideas might appear on the fic!**

 **So that´s all form my part, don´t forget reviews and seeya on the next chapter. Be good and May the force be with you, always :P**


	2. The Light Side

**And here I am again with the second chapter. I want to give you guys a warning, I don't think I will be able to keep this updating rhythm, but I will try and update as fast as I can, remember I have to write this in Spanish first and then translate it xD**

 **In this chapter I am going to focus more on explaining some things and developing the situation, as well as the first contact between Luke and Mara, so it wont be a lot of action on the following chapters, it will come eventually.**

 **I want to say thank you to everyone who followed and favorited my story, It means a world to me and, specially, to the ones who took your time to give me some reviews.**

 **jedichillwill: Well… We will see, I am pretty sure you will like how that is gonna turn xD Thank you so much for reading me and I agree with you, Mara and Luke seem just perfect for each other. Hope you like this chapter : )**

 **Anonymous: Thank you! I´m glad you like it xD I am trying to fit everything as good as I can even though I am gonna change the EU so It can fit better with what I have in my mind hehe. About your idea It´s a good one, but sadly it doesn´t really fit well with how I am going to carry this story, you will see why pretty soon, I hope xD I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

 **Cartman1701: Yeah I agree with you completely. I dunno if Rey is gonna turn out to be Luke´s daughter (Which I really hope it does) but if it happens I really would be disappointed if they don´t make Mara her mother even if she is dead… But seeing how they built Han and Leia´s son It wouldn´t surprise me either if they change it.**

 **About Mara, I am gonna make her like she is in the books, strong and sarcastic, but probably around Luke she will soften a little for obvious reasons, and right now she has to play the part of affected battle survivor : ) I hope you like this chapter xD**

 **So that´s all form my, I already talked too much so… Let´s go with chapter 2!**

The light side

 _Moving rebel base "Home one"_

Seven X-Wing rebel fighters landed on the hangar belonging to the Mon Calamari MC80 class stellar cruiser that was being used as mobile base for the alliance, followed by two cargo shuttles. The Ison Runner´s battle had been a succeed, only if you looked at it by military side, almost the entire Renegade Squadron had fallen after all, in fact, only one of them had survived and probably he would be out of service for a while.

Luke shut down his fighter´s engines and sighed, taking off his helmet but not going out yet, just resting against his seat and closing his eyes with a defeated gesture. Yeah, sure, they accomplished the mission someway, but it didn´t feel like a victory for him, too much casualties and lost comrades for celebrating. They only had been able to save one of the Renegades, since the other remaining one had been obliterated from the sky during the run.

He just remained still like that for a few seconds, but when he saw and felt his squadron companions already on the ground he opened the cabin and walked down the stair while some workers made sure of take R2 out of the spot for the astromech droid.

"Luke!" the young Skywalker turned around when he heard a very well known female voice calling for him, he smiled lightly when princess Leia Organa appeared, running towards him and greeting him with a hug, which he immediately returned "Hey there Leia… How´s it going?"

"How´s it going?!" when the young girl let him go Luke gulped by hearing her annoyed tone "I heard that you and your squadron had been sent to a mission ten minutes after you were already gone! Do you have any idea of how worried I was?" she lectured him "And to a open battle zone, no less! You were lucky to go out of there without losing any of the rogues!"

Luke´s smile got bigger as he shook his head "I´m okay Leia… We are all good, but the Renegade Squadron is not going to fly again for a long time…" he added with a sense of defeat in his voice. Leia´s face changed immediately to a sympathy one, caressing the former farmer´s arm as a comforting gesture "It´s not your fault, Luke… You did all you could to save them."

Luke raised his head to lock his blue eyes into hers, he didn´t know what Leia had but her simple presence made him feel calmed, it seemed like the two of them had created a connection from the first time they saw each other "I know that… It´s just…"

"They were your friends. It´s always hard to lose the people we care about, Luke, but that´s what happens in war, the best way to honor them is to keep fighting and get the win for them."

He sighed and hugged her again "Thank you, Leia" she simply tapped him on the back a few times while she chuckled a little "It´s okay. Good work, commander Skywalker. By the way, I am here to let you know that the high command is gathered and waiting for your mission report."

Luke let her go and nodded, giving her an exaggerated polite greeting "Of course, your worshipfulness, I will be there."

Leia just rolled her eyes and walked away from there, Luke then started to look around until he saw the shuttles starting to get all the cargo, guns and supplies out and into the hangar´s floor. Once the place was clear form imperials the alliance had sent two smaller shuttles to save the cargo from the shut down Nonnah to take them to the mobile base, and also transport the surviving girl since she couldn´t be transported in one of the X-Wings for obvious reasons of lacking of room.

He locked his eyes then on the redhead, Mara was descending from the shuttle, she looked healthier; her bruises and wounds were cleaned up and her injured shoulder was wrapped in bandages, when her emerald eyes met him she smiled and walked towards him "Uhm… He-Hello, commander Skywalker…" she greeted a little shyly, making clear that she didn´t forget about the military protocols to speak to someone with higher range than her.

He just smiled in a friendly way "It´s okay, call me Luke, they only call me commander in more official situations… How are you feeling?"

The young Jade was scanning every single move the Jedi apprentice did, his face made clear that he trusted her completely, he had expected that after all, the emperor assured her that the boy was completely naïve and simply by acting friendly she would have him eating out of her hand "Better… Well… It´s pretty hard, that was my first real battle and… I wasn´t expecting it to turn out that way." She closed her eyes when she answered, seeming affected.

Luke sighed, he could empathize completely with her, the first battle he took part on had resulted on the dead of almost all his companions as well "I understand… I also lost almost my first squadron during my first battle…" he explained. Mara raised her head to lock her green eyes on his blue ones "The Death Star?" she asked out of curiosity, but also trying to sound empathic… The imperial archives delivered by Darth Vader explained that only two rebel fighters had survived the battle out of the thirty that attacked in the first place.

However, if you looked at it the other way around, thousands of imperials had perished when the space station exploded, in fact, Vader was the only survivor. She couldn´t understand how the rebels walked round whining about their losses when they were the same way.

"Exactly… That was my first battle and twenty-eight companions died, it was very hard to take on, specially because now I am suffering something call the survivor´s guilt… I cannot help it." Mara nodded and gave him a light mile "You are Luke Skywalker… IT´s more than clear that you have a destiny to accomplish, any of your friends would be more than willing to give their lives to see the rebellion succeed thanks to you… Besides, they were warriors, they knew what they signed up for, I know it doesn´t help much, but that's what I try to think."

Luke nodded, now that he saw her smile he couldn´t help but notice that she was very beautiful and physically attractive… And he surprised himself staring at her more than what could be appropriate and as soon as he noticed it he tried to focus his sight on her emerald eyes once again. Mara didn´t miss that fact, but decided not to say anything yet, it wasn´t the moment to tease. She wasn´t very used to use her body as a weapon since she never needed it. Subjects like love, or relationships were something she was not familiar with… Even though it seemed like a simple touch would make the young Skywalker´s mind fly.

When those thoughts crossed her mind, the emperor´s hand decided to take one more step… Luke wasn´t able to control the force yet, so he wouldn´t be able to shield his mind rom intrusions, so Mara concentrated lightly to try and touch Luke´s mind and see what she was dealing with.

The moment the subtle conscience of Mara Jade connected with Luke Skywalker´s mind a new and overwhelming feeling trapped the young girl.

What was that? The force… The force inside Skywalker… She had never felt something like that before… So pure, so full of light… Mara´s mind was completely fed by the dark side flowing from the emperor and Vader that a torrent of the light side like that was like lighting a lighthouse in the middle of the night, it blinded her and she lost her breath for a single moment. However, she wasn´t able to let go, that was like a drug… The sensation of calm and nobility she was feeling was addictive… Mara never thought the force could offer something like that.

However, before allowing her mind to start growing doubts Mara shook her head and stepped back from Skywalker all of sudden, breathing heavily and massively opening her eyes.

Luke, who didn´t have any clue of what just happened, got worried "Mara?" the former farmer approached her step by step, afraid of something serious being going on "Are you alright?" Very carefully, he placed a hand on the young redhead´s shoulder, and apparently the physical contact allowed Mara to finally snap back to reality.

She shook her head once again and answered a little suddenly "Yeah… Sure… Just a little shuttered, a lot happened in just one day, I guess."

Luke nodded, still feeling worried "Why don´t you go get some rest?" he asked "I have to go and report th emission to the high command, but we could talk again at dinner…" Mara smiled weakly, showing that, indeed, she could use some rest "Yeah… I think I will go with that, thanks, Luke… See you later then?"

"Sure! I can show you around, not that there is a lot to do around here so the best option is to hang out with people, I can introduce you to the squadron." Mara smiled even brightly, that seemed like it was going to be easier than what she thought initially "I would love that, thank you…"

"Well… I think I have to hit the shower, I will be going now, I don´t want to go to the reunion stinking like X-Wing" added the young rebel with a chuckle, that apparently he passed on to Mara who chuckled back. However, when Luke turned around and started walking away Mara called for him "Luke!" he turned around, curious, and she just said "Thank you for saving my life…"

The young boy just smiled and nodded lightly, walking then towards the bedrooms while Mara started looking for someone who could assign one for her.

….

The young Jedi stripped from his flying suit and walked towards the refresher, while he got a shower his thoughts flew towards the new girl, thinking that she was not all bad… In fact, she was great, and she seemed kind… Actually, she had to be good in combat considering she managed to hold a lot of imperial soldiers all by herself for a long amount of time, maybe he would offer her a spot with the Rogues… They didn´t find new recruits every day after all, now it only lasted to know if the girl could fly.

He went out of the refresher and dressed on his military uniform, it didn´t seem like he was going to get used to that, he had lived wearing farmer clothes all day and the attires he had to wear there were completely different.

However, that one was, by far, the most uncomfortable… It was tight and the shirt´s neck made him choke a little…

Luke sighed and went out his room to walk towards the command room where Mon Mothma, General Madine, Admiral Ackbar and Leia were already waiting for him.

"Commander Skywalker, welcome" greeted Mon Mothma, the rebel alliance´s leader. She was a light old woman, she had served in the senate as Chandrilla´s senator even before the clone wars started, she always was a firm defender of the republic, but with the dissolution of the imperial senate she had started taking a more active part on the alliance as a military strategist and leader.

"Ma´am…" Luke greeted with a bow of his head, and repeated the gesture with all the other people there "I´m sorry about the delay, I had to clean myself up after a long battle like that."

"There is no problem, commander. Now, if you may, we would like to hear your report about the mission said General Madine, gesturing Luke to take a sit on one of the remaining chairs. Young Skywalker did so and placed his hands on his knees, thiking a little before starting to talk "The situation was against the odds… Only Renegade three and five were alive when we got there and the Nonnah had crashed on planet Chorax and was receiving a heavy attack by earth forces…" Luke sighed "Once there I decided to make first priority to protect the Renegades remaining by taking the TIEs away from them so I started a maneuver to make sure the imperials followed me and my squadron, it went well until Renegade three informed me about the situation with the Nonnah so I decided to descend while my team covered me and after taking down the imperial forces on the surface I sent a help signal to pick up the cargo and the only survivor."

Admiral Ackbar looked at General Madine "I thought intelligence had made sure about the convoy´s route being completely secret and safe" the former imperial general nodded "And they did… Maybe we should consider giving the imperial spies more credit… And run a checking on the base to try and look for moles."

Luke looked at the General "General… Are you suggesting that we could have an imperial spy on Home one?"

"We cannot discard it, commander, It´s possible they found out by intercepting some transmission, but the contact who offered this cargo in Sullust was clear, intelligence investigated him deeply, we would need to try and make it seem like a routine checking while we try to unmask the mole, in case we have one." Explained Madine. Mon Mothma and Leia had remained silent during all the meeting, but then Leia spoke "Uhm.. Maybe we should divide our forces, that way we wouldn´t have all our secrets in one place…" she said, and Mothma nodded "I agree, if we indeed have an spy Home One might not be sage, and the new base project was only acknowledged by the high command,, we should inform to speed up the construction so we could send a part of the alliance there, and it could be a good idea to look for a new home ship, so that way we would have two mobile units instead of just one."

Madine seemed to agree "Very well, I will contact admiral Monnon and I will let him know he should double the efforts, we will try to make the moving there in two months tops."

Mothma nodded "It´s settled then… Skywalker, you and your team did a very good job, you are dismissed" Luke bowed his head "Thank you Ma´am"

When he went out the room Leia followed him "This is gonna be a problem…" said the Alderaan´s princess, and Luke nodded in agreement "I know… People is gonna suspect something is going on, even if they try to pass it like a routine checking… IT could make things at the base uncomfortable."

"It might be, but there is no other choice, if we indeed have a mole we have to find him… Anyway… See you at dinner." Said Leia and gifted him with a peek on the cheek as a goodbye, Luke smiled as a thank you "Yeah, see you there…"

….

The young redhead was sitting on her bed´s edge; the bedroom assigned to her was not the big thing… A bed, a bathroom, a cabinet and a working desk. It wasn´t like she didn´t anything else, she was used to sleep in way worse places than that after all.

He managed to accomplish her first goal, to approach Skywalker, , her master assigned her the mission of infiltrating the rebel alliance and she did it with the biggest discretion possible. First he managed to locate a faction of rebel sympathizers in Sullust so she signed in the military academy in that planet, pretending to be a random young girl like any other, it made sense for someone her age to start her military career after all. She didn´t lose time to start showing signs of disapproval against the empire and it didn´t take long for the rebel unit to contact her, so she happily accepted joining them.

After that, her status as the Emperor´s Hand allowed her to make sure to leave a cargo of weapons and supplies without a lot of vigilance so some of the rebel contacts would mark it as a possible mission and, seeing his chance, he decided to steal it and, by the way, give the defectors from Sullust, Mara alongside them, a way out of the planet. Mara also made sure about the imperials knowing about the plans and the route the convoy was going to follow, but without revealing her identity to them. If she wanted the plan to succeed it had to seem like the imperials were actually trying to kill her, and she trusted her being able to hold them until the rebels appeared and help, luckily, no one apart from Vader and Palpatine himself knew how the emperor´s hand looked like.

Everything turned out just perfect, in fact, it was even better than how she had planned since Skywalker himself was the one rescuing her, so that gave her the chance to approach him in a grateful and nice attitude… However, the nature of the force flowing out of the boy caught her out of guard… She didn´t expect something like that.. So pure… So bright and comforting… It didn´t seem like the boy had any kind of bad intentions inside his mind and, for a moment, Mara even asked herself if the boy deserved what was about to come, but she dismissed those thoughts from her mind immediately, she didn´t want the emperor to feel her insecurities, she had a job to do, and she was going to succeed…

 **And that´s the second chapter for you! I really hope you guys liked it even though it wasn´t as much action as in the first one, I tried to focus more on Luke and Mara´s first conversation and that first look from Mara´s part to Luke´s mind… Also, now there is an investigation ongoing O.O That´s definitely not gonna be good for Mara.**

 **Reviews, ideas and building critics and simply opinions are appreciated, I like to listen to you guys and know what you think about my story after all. I don´t have a specific updating day or a timing so I don´t know when the next update is gonna be xD**

 **We,, seeya next chapter, don´t forget to review, be good and May the Force be with you, always :P**


	3. Rogue Squadron

**And here it is the third chapter! Welp, I warned you that my posting rhythm wouldn´t be as fast as between the first two chapters since I had the two almost completely written when I started this story. However, I hope the waiting was worth it since this is the longest chapter I have ever written in any of my fics, so get comfortable and enjoy it xD**

 **I warn you though, I am going to make things a little calmer and focus on character developing instead of action, I already told you that in the previous chapter and I do it again now, soon things will start to happen though, so don´t worry, anyway, if you are reading this story because you like the relationship between Luke and Mara I kind of think you will like this chapter : )**

 **Once again thank you for your support and for following this story, it encourages me to keep writing, and remember reviews are always welcomed, thank you for the ones who took the time to do leave a comment.**

 **JACarter: Well here you have, thank you for Reading my story xD**

 **Well that´s all, let´s get going with the thrid chapter.**

Rogue Squadron

 _Mobile Rebel base – Hone one_

Luke stepped into his room once again after his little chat with Leia and sat on his bed´s edge, slowly covering his face with his hands. Th following days were going to be harsh for sure… Did the high command really believe that the basement´s crew was going to buy the story of a routine checking? Imperials had just found out about an operation´s route that was supposed to be top secret and now suddenly intelligence was going to start interrogating everyone on the basement… It wasn´t too hard to put two and two together… Hell, the rebels were quite intelligent people after all. Luke couldn´t tell it to his squadron and that bothered him, he didn´t like having secrets with the boys, they were like his new found family, alongside Han, Leia and Chewie of course. The young Jedi sighed and changed clothes, finally getting out of that commander suit to replace it with a pair of gray pants and a black t-shirt, he didn´t like wearing too excessive clothing and preferred being comfortable, in fact, that was the philosophy of mostly the entire base, qith the exception of Leia and Mon Mothma, of course.

He still had around two hours until dinnertime arrived, so Luke decided to sit down and meditate. He sat down on the floor and crossed his legs, getting into the correct position with his hands on his knees, he closed his eyes and tried to make his mind blank to feel the force surrounding him… He wasn´t able to sense much just yet, he simply managed to get into some kind of weird trance that allowed him to think more clearly and hear, smell or feel what was happening around him… Nothing extra sensorial was supposed to happen though. Luke wondered if that sense with the force thingy would only happen with adrenaline running his veins, actually his most impressive achievements through the force were sensing the explosion of Alderaan while he was training blindfolded with Ben and also blowing up the Death Star by using the force to guide his instincts when firing the proton torpedoes to the exhaust port.

However, something estrange happened that day, something that hadn´t happened to him before ever since he started using the force… He _felt_ something… Another person, in fact, he was pretty sure about he or she being on the base, he felt the presence close, like a little shiny spot, not very big, but it glowed amazingly, making itself noticeable, like wanting to make clear that it was there. However, Luke wasn´t experienced enough sensing through the force yet so he wasn´t able to locate it and much less identify it… But it was intriguing for sure… Was there another force user on the base?

….

Mara was laying on her bed, looking up to the ceiling, trying to put her thoughts together so she could come out with a plan… It seemed like it would be a long process, luckily her master hadn´t demanded a quick work and she didn´t have a limit date for accomplishing her mission. And besides, Vader was also planning something to try and get the boy, maybe her intervention wasn´t even needed after all, but she should plan for the worst scenario and think that Vader would fail and she would need to step forward, so she would make a plan for that.

It was strange though, considering all the missions she had done in the past for the emperor this one could easily be the most important one, she didn´t have the chance to deal with Jedi business before after all… Vader and the inquisitors were the ones dealing with those sort of things, it was clear that the young redhead girl wouldn´t stand a chance against a trained Jedi after all. But this boy wasn´t trained, he didn´t even seem like a threat, but her orders weren´t to kill him, so there wasn´t no point in worrying about it anyway… However, for some reason she wasn´t comfortable doing what he was doing, she didn´t like the mission, and that annoyance had started bothering her only a few hours ago, since her first real conversation with Skywalker. Mara was trying to calm herself, close her eyes and try to throw those thoughts away, it wasn´t convenient for her if Palpatine was able to sense those doubts in her mind, she didn´t want to be punished when she got back to Imperial Center.

But it seemed like it was too late sice Mara sensed a presence in the force touching her mind in the subtlest way… The young girl tensed herself and opened her eyes, she just assumed it was her master trying to contact her, no one else had ever contacted her after all, in fact, the only one capable of doing it apart from the Emperor was Darth Vader, and the black masked Sith didn´t seem to bother noticing her.

Mara sighed to try and relax while lowering her mental shields, letting her master in, but she opened his eyes in surprise when she realized it wasn´t Palpatine… Actually, it was quite the opposite.

She recognized that force signature immediately; the light, the pureness and the nobility coming out from it overwhelmed her the second time in the same day, even though in that occasion it was lightly different…

It was Skywalker himself the one who had opened his mind and reached out in the force, and that meant everything flowing out of his mind was amplified since Mara had only scratched the surface when she contacted the young rebel´s mind hours ago, and she had pulled away almost immediately because of the astonishing experience it had been back then.

Mara closed her eyes once again, letting the light fill her, and enjoying it for a few seconds. She didn´t even think about it being dangerous or risky in some way, she forgot about her training for just a moment and simply let herself do what she wanted to do, that wasn´t common in The Emperor´s Hand, and she didn´t even know what had pushed her to make that decision, considering that Skywalker could discover her.

…

Luke slowly opened his eyes and frowned a little… It was a strange presence, actualy he wasn´t sure if It could be considered strange since he had never connected with anyone except for Ben when he talked to him… But he had to take in count that Ben Kenobi´s presence in his mind came from someone who was dead, now he was pretty sure _that_ was the force signature he should consider strange or weird.

Young Skywalker came back to reality, but something felt different that time, generally the feelings or sensations he discovered while meditating didn´t stay with him after finishing and cutting his trance. However, that presence… That little light was completely stack on his head. It didn´t bother him, though, it didn´t even feel like it was something new, , it seemed natural to him, like it was meant to be there, and he was actually a little happy about apparently doing some progress with the force, even if he wasn´t sure what that progress was… Maybe it meant being in synchrony with the force or something like that, feeling those kind of things around you and seeing them as normal. It was pretty nice, actually… A little smile appeared on Luke´s lips, but it didn´t take long until he stood up from the floor, he had some work to do since the loss of the Renegade Squadron meant that Rogue Squadron was now the only active elite pilots unit in the base so they would have extra work to do, maybe he should consider increasing the number of pilots on the squadron, the down side was that it was pretty difficult finding pilots that were good enough to fit with the Rogues and also willing to risk their lives kind of weekly since the missions Luke´s squadron used to take weren´t anything near to a piece of cake. He was absolutely determined to offer Mara a place in the squadron, he didn´t know why but he was kind of sure she could fly… He couldn´t explain it, he just knew it.

When eh finally sat on his deck and started reading through the available pilots´ archives on his datapad, taking notes and classifying the ones who seemed more competent, that task kept him absorbed during the hour and a half left for dinne and Luke completely forgot about the little light stack on a deep corner of his mind.

….

Mara was lightly smiling, laying on her bed with her eyes closed while she allowed Skywalker to surround her with his force presence, in fact, if she paid attention, the boy´s mind seemed to be curious and confused, like he had just made a great discovery, there was quite a lot innocence on it to be honest, and Mara had never felt anything like that, she would have liked to feel some of those emotions across her life, but she should be grateful to Palpatine… She was nothing without him after all.

When the presence finally dozed away young Jade growled a little in protest, before opening her eyes and looking around. She sighed lightly, she wasn´t very proud about how she had just done, but she didn´t regret it either, actually she wouldn´t mind if Skywalker touched her mind every once in a while while he meditated, it was an amazing feeling… It was a pity, a real pity the Emperor being so interested in the ex farmer boy… Mara frowned then and tried to focus and concentrate… What was that? Something seemed to… glow… Deep inside her mind, like the force had just left it there like a little candle, just a pinch of light to try and counter all the negativity Mara had received across her living years. The redhead focused on it and smiled once again, there wasn´t any doubt about who that energy belonged to, he couldn´t possibly be mistaken. She didn´t even bother opening her eyes, she didn´t know how much time she got until dinner time btu she actually didn´t care, it was a really exhausting day, so it didn´t took her more than ten minutes to fall asleep.

She didn´t know how long she had been sleeping, but she started to slowly wake up and recovering her conscience when she felt a presence in the force… It was getting closer and the moment it was next to the redhead Mara had already woken up completely. She opened her eyes and grabbed his blaster, resting on her nightstand, aiming to the person who stood next to her bed.

Luke jumped in surprise and lost his balance, falling down and hitting his ass on the ground before rising her hands on a calming gesture "Wow, wow, wow…! Easy there! It´s just me!"

"Luke?" Mara lowered her weapon when she recognized her visitor "Ugh… For the Force… Dion´t scare me like that…" she had forgotten about showing herself shy and grateful, she was just her now, and she actually surprised herself being kind of nice to Skywalker "What are you dong here?"

Luek sighed and stood up "Well ehm… It´s time for dinner… I dunno, I didn´t see you there and I thought that you might had gotten lost…" answered the young man "But seeing that you would be capable of killing to be able to continue your nap I will just let you be…"

Mara laughed and put the blaster back where it was "No, I´m actually hungry, let me change clothes and lead me to the eating room, I am not sure about being able to find it on my own." The young Jade climbed off the bed and looked for some clean clothes on her cabinet, when she was about to change she noticed Luke was still there, looking at her. She raised her eyebrow "Do you mind? OR would you rather enjoy the show?"

At first Luke gave her a confused look, but once a cable connected on his brain he blushed fiercely "oh! Of course! I-I´m sorry…" he said, turning around and looking down to the ground, and Mara cold swear she was able to see smoke coming out his ears.

The girl couldn´t help but smile, she could feel Skywalker´s power, she knew he was capable of doing great things and for what she heard before the mission he managed to be a great and successful squadron leader, but he still acted like an inexpert teen and insecure, not that she was the one to talk anyway… She had just been with two men across her life after all and it was very sudden and casual… Even though she was pretty sure she wouldn´t blush in a situation like the current. In fact, she started to think about putting aside the cover of a good, nice and grateful girl and just be herself, it seemed like it would work the same way with Skywalker anyway.

Mara was fast changing, taking off her bruised, broken and bloody clothes until she was only in her underwear, a black sports bra and simple panties of the same color, and then started to get dressed with a simple white trousers and a big sleeveless black top, letting her midsection exposed, she also put her scarlet hair on a high ponytail "Ready… Shall we go?" she announced… She thought that attire like that would catch Skywalker´s attention even more, and she wasn´t wrong. As soon as the pilot turned around to look at her she could see him analyzing every curve of her body with his blue eyes, but she faked not noticing it, and Luke immediately locked his eyes on hers.

"Ehm… Yeam sure, let´s get going." He said, opening the door so the young girl could get out first, he was still polite after all, and that didn´t go unnoticed by Mara "Well, that´s very nice of you…" she said while she walked next to Luke and exited the room by moving her hips more than usual.

Luke gulpd and closed the door "Well, I was always told that manners are important."

Hearing that, while they walked, Mara grew a little curious about the place Luke had grown up, someone that powerful, a famous Jedi´s son "Oh? Have Did you grow up in aristocracy or something like that?" she knew it wasn´t like that, but the emperor had only given her the intel about Luke being a farmboy and him being naïve, if she wanted to be able to get close to him and make him trust her completely she needed to play her cards and, for that, she needed to know the whole story.

"I grew up on Tatooine" he answered then "On a moisture farm since I have memory… I was there less than a year ago, It´s still hard to believe how much things have changed in a short amount of time, to be honest."

Mara didn´t even need to fake surprise with that… He didn´t even get any kind of combat training or something in that regard? He had lived in Tatooine all his life?A planet isolated form the war and he had joined the Rebellion regardless… That was strange, and the question seemed to just pop out of her mouth without control, needing to satisfy her own curiosity, not thinking about the mission anymore "Tatooine huh? Wow… I didn´t see that coming… And how did you end up here?"

Luke smiled in a sad way "It was kind of by accident actually… You can call it the will of the force if you want but… My uncle simply bought two androids to the Jawas that happened to be carrying the stolen secret plans for the Death Star that Leia had managed to hide inside R2 before she was captured." Luke explained "I met Ben and he told me about my father, he gave me my lightsaber and asked me for help rescuing the princess… I didn´t want to interfere at first, but when I came back home the stromtroopers had burned down my farm and my aunt and uncle with it to ashes… Just because they had accidentaly bought two androids, I just couldn´t do nothing about it…"

Mara gulped a little, opening her eyes in shock "The empire… The empire killed your aunt and uncle just because buying the wrong androids?" she asked once again, clearly showing her shock in her words.. She knew some Imperial leaders liked to abuse the people… Btu that was completely inexcusable, it might not be anything compared to destroying Alderaan, but the premise was the same… IF you are in my way, you must be destroyed, she had to inform Palpatine about everything she was finding out when she get back to Imperial Center. Luke just nodded sadly, clearly hurt by memories "Yeah… I dunno why you look so surprised though. Didn´t you leave the empire because those kind of things? While I lived in Tatooine I didn´t like the empire much, but I never thought they could go that far, to be honest…"

"I…" Mara gulped again, that was true, her cover was her defection from Military academy in Sullust "Yeah… Well… I defected after Alderaan… But I can´t help but still get surprised when I hear about those kind of atrocities, you know?"

Luke nodded once again "Yeah, I get you… But anyway, we are here now, and what we have to do is keep fighting to honor the fallen, you said it, remember?"

Mara just nodded her agreement, lost in her thoughts once again, since he was in the rebel base she she hadn´t stop letting her mind fly on some dangerous ways,, and he didn´t even spend a whole day in Home One… She wondered how she would end up when she finished her mission and she had to go back to Palpatine… She hoped that at least her master decided to take a step forward and punish all of the officials who were performing those senseless massacres.

They didn´t talk much more the rest of the way to the eating room, where the Rogues were engaged on a quite out loud conversation.

Wedge was sitting with his hands behind his head without paying much attention to what the other members of the squadron were saying, just as Zev was doing, both of them were the most veterans and adults of the team, they didn´t have much interest in the subject that seemed to have the other three rogues so heated up.

"I´m telling you! Twi´lek girls are the hardest to get! For real, all that dancing thing is just a trick." Wes was telling his partner. Wes Janson joined the squadron a couple of months after the Battle of Yavin and Wedge decided to take care of him. HE was young, impulsive and he liked to prank, he was the main responsible of the family environment the Rogues had between the,. Sitting right next to him was Dak Ralter, who replied him "Really? C´mon man, I´m sure you´re making that up! The fact that they say no to you doesn't prove anything! Hell, you wouldn´t have any chances even with Mon Mothma!"

That made all the pilots laugh, except for Wedge of course, who answered with some annoyed mumblings. Despite what could look like, Wes and Dak were best buddies, they had joined the squadron almost at the same time and were around the same age, in fact, they both were kind of under the protection of the two founders since Luke had decided to take Dak as his "protégée" since he was the youngest. Dak had served as Luke´s wingman on almost all the missions since then, and he wasn´t doing bad at all.

However, the argument ended when Derek Klivian, who everyone in the squadron called Hobbie, raised his head when eh noticed his commander get close with the redhead girl following close "Hey Rogues! It seems that the Commander finally found himself a girl!"

Instantly all heads on the table turned towards the two, Luke sighed and shook his head while Mara raised an eyebrow curiously… Where the hell did they get that assumption?

"Guys, this is Mara" Luke said, starting with the introductions and pointing the squadron members while he named them "Mara, these are Wedge, Zev, Wes, Dak and Hobbie, Rogue Squadron." Everyone raised their glasses when they were named and gave her a greeting gesture, Dak was the first to talk, smirking a little intentionally "So tell me, boss… Isn´t this beautiful girls the one you rescued from Chorax?"

Luke nodded, while politely put aside a chair to allow Mara to sit "Indeed, she is." He answered. It was Wes this time the one to speak "Seriously, boss… You kind of have a gift for rescuing hot girls… First Leia and now Mara. How can it be you are not able to get a girl?"

"Maybe because he is busy rescuing and serving the alliance than thinking about that, something I see you guys don´t do… Weren´t you supposed to be elite pilots?" Mara suddenly asked, with a proud smile on her face, that made Wes close his mouth immediately and the others laughed once again, Luke included. Wedge was the first to talk "I like her, Boss, she knows how to defend herself."

She laughed a little, they didn´t seem like bad people at all and she could get used to be around them, Luke just shrugged and asked Mara "What would you like to eat?" She looked at him, now that she thought about it no one had ever asked her that kind of question, and she wasn´t prepared for it "I… Don´t know… Same as you, I guess, I don´t know the menu here…" she excused herself, she didn´t want to spend much time thinking about the food since that could look weird.

Luke smiled kindly at her "Sure! I will bring a menu for you as well." He said, before turning around to go get the food.

Wedge looked at Mara then "So how are you adjusting to this? I have heard you defected from the empire with the convoy." The redhead looked at him, of course, that was her cover story, she smiled lightly at him and nodded "Yeah… There were a lot of things I didn´t like form the empire but… I never thought this being that different, it seems much less professional, not offense meant…" this time it was Dak the one laughing out loud "Ha! We consider that a compliment!" said the young pilot "Those imperioals think they are so cool with all those protocols and rules! But we don´t do anything but kick theyr srry asses! They need at least two times our fighters to have a chance of winning!"

The pilots nodded and mumbled they approvals, even raised they drinks and drank in agreement with what Dak had said. Mara was a little overwhelmed, she had never seem that kind of environment in any imperial installation, there weren´t a lot of friendships, people just ate without doing much talking and go back to work. However, across the entire cafeteria loud conversations, laughs and arguments could be heard… She knew the alliance was militarily affective, they had achieved a few important victories over the empire after all, but she had never imagined a group of capable soldiers acting like that.

"I… Well… Yeah I guess that´s it. I think It will just take me a little while to get used to this." The Emperor´s hand excused herself, Hobbie spoke "Yeah I get you, Wedge and I defected form the empire as well… When we got to the rebellion it happened to be a very sudden change about how things are done in the empire but don´t worry, you get used to it pretty fast, it is always better to change for better after all, right?"

Mara didn´t have time to answer since Luke arrived shortly with two trays full of food "Dinner´s ready!" he said, placing a whole menu in front of Mara whole he sat down next to her, quickly starting to dig into his food without a lot of consideration. Zev shook his head then and chuckled "Excuse our commander, Mara… When his stomach is empty he suddenly forgets about any kind of manners."

Luke raised his head to look at both of them with a confused look, his cheeks full of food "Hmmm?" he made a sound of questioning but he didn´t open his mouth to prevent some spitting.

Mara couldn´t hold a chuckle and then starting laughing even more, to be honest she never thought about being so comfortable with those rebels, in fact, she was just thinking about having dinner with these people after all, her mission was just buried deep in her mind at that moment…

 **And that´s it guys! Wow… That came out longer than expected… To be honest I had some troubles to write the meditation scene, I didn´t want it to be tiring to read, please tell me on the coments what you guys thought about it and if you saw it too long.**

 **Seems liek Mara is starting to get along with the squadron, and that´s good… Right? Considering that Luke wants to ask her to fly with them xD**

 **Anyway, I dunno when I will update the next chapter, but I dont´think it will take long, but you guys consider I have to post it in Spanish and then translate it. Remember that reviews with constructive crytics, suggestions or justoppininos are very welcomed and they help a lot to keep my muse high and see the acceptance this story is having.**

 **Well, nothing else to say from me,see you guys next chapter. Don´t forget to review, be good and may the forcé be with you, always :P**


	4. Rogue girl

**Well, for starters I want to apologize for taking longer than usual on updating, but it has a simple explanation: I´m stuck with finals.**

 **I hope you understand that I have a little lack of time and creativity during these dates and if you also think that this chapter is one of the most difficult I have write since it goes a little slower than usual, even though I think it provides necessary information for the plot, I haven't been able to hurry more than this.**

 **But what it matters is that the chapter is finally here and I hope you guys enjoy it. I am planning on writing the fifth faster than this one, and also some things are going to start happening until we have a time jump to episode V´s beginning, probably happening pretty soon, since the introduction is going to end soon as well.**

 **Once again thank you very much to everyone who follows and favorite this story and, beyond that, to the people who had bothered of taking a moment and give me a review, It means a lot to me and it really helps me and encourages me to keep writing and do my best to make you guys happy.**

 **AzureTemplar3535: Thank you, I´m glad you like it, I love Mara as well, It hink she is one of the best characters in Star Wars. Also yes, I am a fan of the saga, I played the first game when I was little and recently I managed to get my hands on Rogue Leader, and also yes, I used the third mission xD**

 **AS I told another reader a few chapters earlier… You will have to wait and see what happens with Luke and Mara : )**

 **And thank you for the fact, I didn´t know the DS exact crew number xD**

 **Well, now that´s said, let´s go with chapter 4!**

Rogue girl

Dinner was going peacefully, Mara wasn´t actually participating much in the chatting between the rogues that were mainly focused on ships, women and the alliance´s situation. The redhead was actually surprised about the high amount of jokes the pilots shared between them, most of them targeting Luke regarding the fact of bringing her to dinner. Mara saw that as a positive development, it could probably help her earn Skywalker´s trust earlier than she had guessed if he was getting kind of pushed towards a relationship with her by his men.

However, even if she was constantly smiling and actually enjoying herself during the dinner with the Rogues, she stopped paying attention to the conversation at hand, that was until she vaguely heard Luke´s voice calling up for her "Mara? Hey there! Mara!" the young Jedi added with a little smirk, trying to take the redhead out of her little trance. She raised her head from her food and looked confused "Eh? What? It´s me?"

Luke laughed, just like the rest of the pilots, and then he asked "I was wondering if you had flying experience on the imperial academy."

She smiled a little and smiled proudly, that wasn´t exactly a lie, since she had actually received piloting lessons on an imperial academy, only that it wasn´t located on Sullust like her cover story stated "Of course… We were taught how to fly TIE fighters and a few other imperial ships and shuttles, in fact, I am the first of my promotion." She added that last one with a clear pride tone, which was also true, she was one of the best pilots on the empire after all, like the emperor´s Hand should be. Luke seemed pleased with her answer and he asked again "Could you fly a X-Wing?"

Mara looked around to the other pilots, who were waiting eagerly for her answer… She didn´t know exactly what all of that was about, but he pride didn't let her answer any other way, she crossed her arms on her chest and formed a cocky smile "I can fly anything."

To her surprise, Skywalker´s smile grew a even more when she answered, as well as the other squadron´s pilots´, specially Wedge, Wes and Dak, even though the young Skywalker´s smile was the brightest one when he talked, clapping his hands once enthusiastically "That´s great then!" he said "We have been looking for new pilots for the Rogues for quite a while, but it´s really hard to find people who can fly at the same level we do not flying for another squadron and that are actually willing to risk their lives in our elite missions…"

The young girl blinked a few times, not quite believing what she was starting to think he was implying "I… you…?" she babbled for a moment, before regaining her composure "Are you offering me a spot with the Rogues?"

Luke Smiled but shook his head "No, no… Well… At least not exactly" he started to explain "I am offering you the chance of doing the trials for it, we need only the best with us and well… I think you can handle it."

Mara raised an eyebrow lightly, she wasn´t used to do any kind of tests of any kind and that could be interesting, even fun, so she simply nodded in agreement "Alight… Keep me informed on that regard" she said, even though she suddenly thought about something "Isn´t something weird to go around offering chances to join your squadron to new people?" asked the redhead, even though it was Wedge the one answering this time "It is… but there is a problem with that… Most of the new recruits for the Rebellion are people form occupied planets who don´t want to live under the oppression anymore and with absolutely no military training… We train them ourselves but it takes some time… Luke here is actually the exception to the rule, coming form a desert farming life and suddenly becoming a hero… But I guess that´s something to do with that force thing" the Corellian pilot chuckled and Luke shrugged with a smile, but then he continued "So since the Rogues have been on need of new pilots for a while, and even more now that the Renegades are out of service, the best option are imperial defectors who actually have piloting experience, even if it is only from the academy."

Mara nodded lightly… Interesting, so the empire defectors turned out to be valuable members of the rebellion, that wasn´t actually surprising, the imperial military academies were the best of the galaxy after all. She smiled once again to look at the young Totooinean boy with curiosity "And how would those trials go exactly?" she asked. The former farmboy finished drinking a bit of water and placed his glass back on the table. That was another fact the rest of the pilots bullied him about, apparently the commander was the only one not drinking alcohol most of the time, he sued water or some kind of juices during the meals and only actually drank in special occasions, while the other rogues were often seem with a glass of Agarican Beer or Ruvian Fizzh… Too bad the Corellian whisky was hard to smuggle and the Rebellion´s founds were not high enough to spend on luxury alcoholic drinks.

"Well… I don´t really know, to be honest, I have never organized pilot tests before since we founded the squadron after the battle of Yavin and we already knew each other" explained Luke "but I think we will do some kind of battle situation test in the simulator and as a finishing we would do a field test, even though we will not put the recruits under much real danger."

Mara frowned hearing that "Not real Danger, Skywalker? What´s this about? You think a girl cannot face real danger?"

Luke actually choked a little bit when he heard the annoyed tone she was using " …? N-No, of course not… I didn´t mean… I mean… Leia and Mon Mothma are…"

Without letting Luke finish his apology Mara just busted into laughter, followed by the rest of the squadron "Oh my god, Skywalker! I´m just teasing you! Really! You should have seen your face, it was absolutely priceless!"

Luke blushed brightly and hid his face in his food plate, focusing on eating while his cheeks burned.

After a few seconds the laughing was interrupted by a voice calling from behind Luke "Good evening, Rogues… Would you mind if I sit?" Wedge was the first one nodding and bowing a little "Your highness…" he said while Leia smiled to him in return and bowed as well as a response, sitting in front of Luke.

The princess then focused her attention on the newcomer recruit, raising an eyebrow "So, you must be Mara, the survivor we found in the Nonnah… I am Leia Organa."

Mara dropped the utensils, faking surprise, of course she expected the princess to show up eventually considering that the reports said her and Skywalker were pretty close "Your highness… It´s an honor to meet you." She said, bowing her head as well, with a perfect fake shyness.

The Alderaanian princess just smiled even more "I´m glad to meet you too, I know you did a good part in the battle and that you survived a ground attack from the empire against the shuttle, I am happy the rebellion now has a great fighter like you." Leia congratulated the redhead in a very diplomatic way, she was used to that after all. Mara smiled and looked at the princess in the eyes, nodding "Thank you, I´m happy to help…"

Luke then stared at Leia and, after swallowing, he asked, some time he decided to try and talk with his mouth full and the results weren´t very pleasant "Leia… Are there any news about Han?" he asked with clear innocence in his voice, but the princess changed her gesture from smile to an annoyed one and crossed her arms in front of her chest "Captain Solo hasn´t had the decency of making contact yet ad, honestly, I don´t care. If it wasn´t because we need those medicines he is smuggling he could stay in Ord Mantell for what I care."

Mara raised his eyes from her plate and looked curiously at the princess, you didn´t need to be force sensitive to see that she was lying in a more obvious way than if she said that Darth Vader himself was her father.. Luke had also noticed that and sighed a little "I´m sure they are okay, Chewie is with him. It could be that they just ran into a problem, that they needed to delay their leaving to avoid an imperial patrol or maybe that piece of junk´s hyperdrive is broken once again." He added with a chuckle.

Leia rolled her eyes before sighing in exasperation "I don´t know why he doesn´t get rid of that freighter… The alliance could provide him with a much better vehicle."

"I have to say I understand him" Luke said "I cannot even think about changing my X-Wing or what I´m gonna do when it gets destroyed… I dunno… That ship and I have been through a lot together, and I am sure that the relationship between Han and the falcon is even more intense."

The princess of Alderaan puffed a little, even though she kind of let aside her proud attitude about Han. Meanwhile, the rest of the table was silent, quietly observing the scene with interest, it was very well known that the princess and the smuggler had a quite peculiar relationship gong on between them.

Leia crossed her arms once again before answering "I really don't get what you buys have with your ships… Or your ships´ size… Or your ships´ speed… Maybe you are trying to compensate something…"

Mara couldn´t hold laughter just like most of the present pilots, the smile returned to the princess´ face and the rest of the dinner went through rather peacefully with nice chatting and joking around.

…

The Rebellion´s flag ship, Home one, floated in the vacuum of the space near the edge that separated the mid rim and the outer rim, just between Naboo and Abra systems. However, a few light years away, and far from any crowded commerce route, was the Bothawi system, where the lion-like race who had provided the alliance with the majority of their best spies had it´s origin. The space avibe the planet seemed quiet, the system was officially part of the empire, even though the governors managed to negotiate a bargain for them to stay neutral in the current Civil war in exchange of the empire being able to use their resources and only leaving a small command, allowing the Bothans to live their lives peacefully. The empire didn´t try too hard to persuade the bothans, the planet was no good for a ship base or any kind of facility since an asteroid ring surrounded it, making quite difficult for a big ship to enter or go out from there without suffering some kind of damage.

However, a ship came out the hyperspace and stopped just before entering the asteroid field. The motive for their approach to the planet was the rebellion´s intelligence main quarters located on Bothawi´s surface, hiding from the empire, getting coded transmissions and with an open channel directly with Home One.

With a light explosion the YT-1300 Corellian freighter stopped before entering the asteroids. The Millenium Falcon had spent a few days making random hyperspace jumps, travelling from one point in the galaxy to another, until they finally got there.

In the cockpit, Han Solo observed the navicomputer "Uhmmm… Alright, we finally are in Bothawi. This is the fourth jum we had made. You think we finally managed to get rid of that annoying droid?" he asked to his copilot.

The huge Wookie answered only with a growl and pushed some buttons to run a scan of their surroundings, informing Hand with a series of grunting in the Wookie language in a positive manner. The Corellian sighed in relief and laid against his chair while placing his feet on the control panel "It was about time, he was persistent, I have to give him that" said Han "For real, my friend, I have to get rid of that damned bounty on my head, now that I have money."

Chewbacca gave him a worried grunt as an answer and Han simply rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah… I know it would take a while and I know we will have to leave, but it´s not that big deal… Those kids can survive without me for a while."

New growl, and Han clenched his teeth "Yeah sure, we will be safe with the alliance… But c´mon Chewie, you know me better than that! I am not going to be stuck on that big ship just ot be sure a bounty hunter is not behind my back" he countered, a little bit annoyed "You know I just cannot stay still in one place for a long time! I like to be in move! First we will fix this situation and then we will wee what we do, okay? I have been an idiot allowing my guard to get down, we nearly didn´t make it out of Ord Mantell."

With that Chewbacca didn´t answer, he just sat on his chair, with a moody gesture and grunted a question "What we are going to do now is contact the Bothan intelligence base and ask them to give us the coordinates for Home One, , I´m not gonna risk sending a transmission on my own on such a long rank inside imperial territory, I don´t have the codification machinery here… But for that we need to get through this asteroid field so keep your finger on the trigger."

As soon as he finished talking Han took the controls once again and he started slowly getting inside the asteroid ring, luckily it was not a too long ride and they didn´t have much trouble to cross it, Chewie took care of a pair of rocks that were in the way and in less than fifteen minutes they were safe on the other side of the ring, floating just over Bothawi, so Han opened the comms for all the rebel frequencies.

"This is Captain Solo from the Millenium Falcon, do you copy?" there was no answer ""This is Captain Solo from the Millenium Falcon, does someone copy?"

A few seconds passed without response until the comm made a buzzing sound, indicating that the transmission had begun "This is Rebel alliance´s intelligence Command, Captain Solo, we Copy."

Han sighed in relief "I´m on the space above Bothawi, I cannot risk sending a transmission to Home One. My mission in Ord Mantell suffered an unexpected delay, I request the coordinates of the base ship so I can head there, and also that you transmit to warn them of my arrival and positive results on the mission."

"Copy that, Captain Solo, please transmit your identification code." Han pressed two buttons and he got a reply a few seconds later "Very well Captain Solo, sending the coordinates to you, good flight, Home One will be informed of your arrival and results. Intelligence out."

Han smiled and stared at the transmission screen, if he wasn´t wrong, those coordinates were in the edge of the outer rim, near Naboo, "Chewie, settle the coordinates in the navicomputer" he heard the Wookie growl and he frowned "I know the hyperdrive is on it´s lasts… But it would need to hold on this last jump, we will make repairs on the base, now settle the coordinates already!"

A few minutes later Chewbacca had finished making the calculations while Han passed again through the asteroid field so they didn´t have problems with the jump, and the Millenium falcon disappeared into the space.

…..

Very well then… We´re here." Luke said as soon as Mara and him stopped walking when they got to Mara´s room, stopping outside the door. "You didn´t have to walk me to my room, Luke" the redhead said "I´m a big girl, I know how to get here on my own."The young man shrugged "Well, It´s on my way too and it´s easy to get lost here during your first days…" Mara raised a playful eyebrow "Oh really? What way is your room?" she asked, and Luke blushed a little, looking at his shoes as he pointed to the direction they were coming from, Mara couldn´t help but laugh "You know? You aren´t a good liar… Maybe you should practice that, maybe you would find it useful during your life as a rebel."

Luke frowned lightly "I don´t wanna lie to be a rebel" he explained "my uncle always told me that lying was a huge lack of respect towards the other person…"

The redhead titled her head curiously when she heard that "Oh really? That´s an interesting education what you have there, farmboy." She commented with a smirk, and Luke simply laughed a little "You know? If you finally make it to the Rogues I will be your commander." He asked, trying to counter that nickname.

But Mara just shrugged, like giving little importance to that fact "You just make sure you make those trials happen soon. I guess I will see you tomorrow, commander farmboy."

They stood there for a few moments and Mara moved to go to her room, but then leaned forward to give Luke a peek on the cheek, turning around with a smile to get into her room and closing the door behind her. Luke stood there for a moment, completely still and with a stupid grin on his face. After a few moments he also turned around to walk towards his room.

Mara sighed and closed her eyes, it had been a long and productive day for sure, she would have never imagined doing so much progress only on her first day and approach to the boy… In fact, she was pretty sure that, if she only forced the situation a little, she would have the young Jedi eating from the palm of her hand in record time. However, when she laid on the bed she had dropped those thoughts and she was just relaxing, remembering the feeling of receiving Luke´s mind while he was meditating… And it was at that moment when that little drop of light buried in her mind went noticeable again, making the redhead frown… She knew what that was, and ic ould be even good, a connection with Skywalker might turn out useful during her mission, but it could be bad as well if the young man discovered her, she would need to work hard on her mental shields to avoid that, luckily for her, shielding her mind was one of the things the emperor had taught her like a priority.

She closed her eyes and got to work. However, while she slowly but firmly built barriers on her mind and force presence, she felt someone trying to contact her, and since there were nearly no chances of Skywalker being meditating this late, she sighed and opened her mind.

" _My child…"_ Mara closed her eyes before answering _"Yes, my master."_

Palpatine´s demanding and overwhelming voice invaded her mind full of hate and anger, making her shiver a little and denying that light she had been focusing on just a few moments ago _"I trust things are going well, my hand."_

" _Of course, my master. Young Skywalker wont be a challenge, he trusts me completel, he had even offered me a spot on his flying squadron…"_

" _Good… Good… I expect quickness in your task in case Vader fails, my dear child, Skywalker would not be able to resist you."_

" _Master… Do you wish I inform you about the alliance´s movements?"_ Mara asked then, hoping to get some other job, not only being a plan B, but her master´s response was clear _"No, we don´t need it, they are not dangerous and that could only grow suspicions, we cannot allow that… Now rest, my child, you are doing a good job."_

" _Thank you, my master…"_ but the connection had already been cut before Mara finished talking.

After the conversation Mara closed her eyes once again letting out a sigh, she had to finish building those mind barriers before going to sleep.

 **And that was chapter 4 for you guys. Considering Mara was getting soft too fast (she has only been a day on the base) I think it was necessary that Palpatine reminded her who she is, right? Very well then, what it is clear is that our young Jedi is falling completely under the spell of our dearest redhead, let´s see how everything develops from here xD**

 **Any type of constructive critics, suggestions or just opinions are good taken, actually, I am very grateful for them, I like to know what my readers think and try to make you happy if you want to read something concrete (that doesn´t make the story fall, of course xD)**

 **I hope the next chapter will be finished earlier than this one since the finals are going to be be over soon, so stay alert.**

 **That´s all from my part, see you all next chapter. Don´t forget to review, be good and may the force be with you, always :P**


	5. Swords and advices

**Helloooooo! I´m so sorry about the delay with this update, but I took this vacation moth after my finals for relax, I have been writing step by step but to be honest I was a little stuck and I didn´t want to force myself to write too much, I needed to give my brain a few days of well earned rest, IA m sure you guys understand… But I am here again! And I think I bring you the longest, or at least one of the longest, chapters in this fic, as compensation.**

 **I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter, thank you very much for the support you guys give this fic, considering the subject and that this si not a famous couple in general or with a lot of fans, I am very satisfied with how you guys are reacting.**

 **I appreciate every single person who favorited this or the people who are following my story, and a little extra to all of the ones who take a little time to leave me a review, you truly give me strength to keep going, I am writing this for you, after all.**

 **Azuretemplar3535: Well I am glad you liked it, I thought ti could be fun to see Mara interact with the Rogues or Leia, and yeah that joke was completely intentional xD**

 **Guest: I´m glad you like this, and I really hope you also like how I am going to continue. : )**

 **Welp… That´s all I have to say, so without making the wait longer let´s hit chapter 5!**

Swords and advices

 _Home one – Two weeks later_

Luke slowly opened his eyes and looked at the clock on the table next to his bed. He let out a desperate moan when he realized there were still two hours left until breakfast was ready. He obviously wasn´t going to fall sleep again, the young rebel used to have a deep sleep, but he had been having some weird dreams lately, those dreams usually focused around certain redhead and made him woke up in the middle of the night, even covered in sweat sometimes.

The dreams were nothing alike, sometimes there were him and Mara laying on the ground, holding each other´s hands while they agonize even though Luke couldn´t tell what was killing them. Other times they were performing some activities that make him woke up completely heated, but for some weird reason he didn´t see that situation as a strange one, in fact, he discovered himself not minding it at all. However there was this one dream, which creeped him out the most, where he was flying on his X-Wing and, suddenly, he realized Mara was behind him, even though the fighter was not designed to carry more than one passenger. The very moment Luke turned around to look at her, she would kiss him fiercely and passionately, but he suddenly felt an intense pain in his stomach, onlu to realize that she had tossed a knife on his gut and, once he took his eyes back to Mara´s, the redhead´s eyes weren´t green anymore, but golden.

The future Jedi found those kind of things frustrating, as a Jedi, he was supposed to avoid those dreams disturb him and it frustrated him not being able to control himself, even though the training he had received was only a little more than nothing.

And then there was that little light at the bottom of his head that had appeared two weeks earlier. It was still there, and Luke could feel it even better when he was meditating, even though that person shielded himself or herself for some reason when he tried to reach to the important part of it. He was never the one being contacted so he was always the one looking for the peace and feeling of tranquility that presence gave him during his meditation sessions.

However, it also frustrated him not being able to determine who that person was, it was clear that some other fore sensitive was there at the base and he was actually excited about that idea, so he was willing to meet him or her, and he didn't understand why it seemed so determined to hide itself… Everyone in the base knew Luke was force sensitive. In fact, they were all excited about the idea of having a Jedi hero on their side… Wouldn't it be a relief for him or her to know that it was not the only one as well?

But there was no pint on thinking about it more, so the young man from Tatooine decided it was time to get off bed, he didn´t have a shower since he was going to need it later, he didn´t meditate or clean himself either, he didn´t feel like it at the time, he had just out a lot of thought into what bothered him durng meditation and the last him he wanted was thinking about it again, so he just dressed up with a simple pair of sport trousers and a sleeveless T-shirt to get out of his room and walk towards the base´s gym.

While he walked he also stretched his neck, shoulders and arms. If he was going to exercise he would need to get his muscles ready, as a matter of fact, if his force training had helped him with something it was that his physical capabilities were improving immensely, not even him believed it, he assumed it was due to his blindfolded training with his lightsaber, trying to use his instinct and force enhanced senses to block the lasers from the training device.

When he entered the gym he was surprised to find out that the lights were already on, it wasn´t usual for someone to get there that early in the morning, so he peeked in and looked around curiously, only to stop and find himself completely astonished with the view in front of him.

Mara Jade was there, running on the treadmill showing her back to him, she was wearing just a top that covered her just down her chest, her scarlet hair was tied up in a ponytail and she wore a pair of fit pants which let every curve on her body shine.

Luke couldn´t help but notice the little sweat drops slicing down her back and arms, and that made him gulp a little. Mara should have felt him because she quickly stopped her run and the redhead spoke while she panted trying to recover her breath "Are you finished staring like a dummy, farmboy?" she asked "Or do you want me to keep running for you a little longer?"

Luke shook his head then and his face turned bright red "Wh-What?" he clumsily asked, not really knowing what to say "I… I w-wasn´t…"

She then laughed "C´mon there, Skywalker, I know you were looking, I would actually worry about my features or maybe because you played for the other team if you didn´t. Just like I can´t help but notice that you hide a lot of stuff under those loose clothes you wear… Nice…" she added with a smile, playfully caressing Luke´s toned abbs with a finger, he gulped and backed down a little abruptly "I ehm… Thank you…"

Mara just smiled and shook her head "I still cannot believe that the Rebellion´s great hero is just a shy farmboy…"

"Hey!" he protested, but Mara just tossed the subject away with a gesture of her hand, like not giving a shit about it.

"C´mon now, Skywalker, I haven´t said anything bad, it´s nothing to be ashamed about, to be honest." The redhead decided that she had already talked too much about that and she decided to change the subject, cracking her neck and stretching a little "Anyway, what are you doing here this early?"

Luke just shrugged "I have been dreaming weird things lately, and I wake up early when it happens… So I just come here to entertain myself until breakfast time." The rebel explained, not seeming worried about it at all.

Mara nodded "I know what you mean, I have been here two weeks already and I still have trouble sleeping with all that has happened… You know, I still dream with that day sometimes." The emperor´s hand had taken a perfect role of the survivor adapting to a new home, but with the survivor´s guilt hunting her, she also included some drops of trauma on his usual mix of sarcasm, jokes and cockiness… If she didn't the rebels would never believe she was genuine, and if Mara needed something right now was for them to believe her.

Luke locked his blue eyes in her green ones and smiled "Yes, I understand. I still dream a lot with the deaths of Ben or my aunt and uncle…" he explained. During those past two weeks Mara and him had talked a lot, and Luke told her everything about him and his story, and she had trusted him too, or at least that was what he thought, since everything Mara told him about her past life and how she ended up being where he found her was part of a perfect acted fake backstory.

Mara knew what Luke was talking about anyway so she smiled at her, trying to empathize "I guess exercise clears both our minds, huh?"

The young rebel smiled and shrugged a little, not really knowing what to say next, even though he felt comfortable around Mara, her more direct personality made him back down sometimes.

Mara realized that the boy was starting to seem a little shy, and she knew that if she went on with that kind of conversation, he was not going to achieve anything else than making the rest of the conversation uncomfortable for both of them, so she decided to completely change subjects "I am actually surprised to see you on the gym and not practicing with that lightsaber of yours" she said nonchalantly, so Luke looked at the machines in the gym.

"I don´t know… Lightsaber training is not that relaxing I guess, I still need a deep focus for it after all… And since I only know a few basic moves I have to train on my own… I don´t know anyone with that type of training anyway."

"You mean sword training?" she asked "I know a thing or two in that matter!" Luke raised an eyebrow, doubtfully, true that he had never asked Mara about her combat capabilities, but considering that she managed to survive the imperial attack the day the met they should be pretty good.

"You know about lightsaber training?" he asked, looking clearly surprised, but Mara answered with a little laughter.

"What? Of course not! But in the imperial academy we are trained in hand to hand combat… you know, electric sticks and those kind of things… I could try and help you, I think you rebels don´t have anything like that here, right?"

It was a lie, of course, the emperor and his assassins had trained her in every kind of combat technique, including lightsaber, even though she had never been granted with her own.

Luke´s face literally got brighter when he heard that, he perspective of training with someone real looked like a dream for him, and the fact of his training partner being Mara Jade made it even better "Of course! I get it… Well… I would like for you to help me… If you want…"

Mara smiled back at him and shoved his shoulder playfully "Of course I want to, Skywalker, I was the one offering for it now, wasn´t I?"she declared, with a singing voice that made Luke smile even more, he loved seeing Mara happy. True fact, the redhead never stopped surprising him, she was a little closed with the rest of the base, not that she didn´t talk, or fit in, but she didn´t seem to give any sings of trusting anyone but him… Luke thought it was because he was the one who rescued her and, perhaps, they could have developed some kind of special relationship, and besides, they had discovered that they had a lot of things in common.

"C´mon! Move and give me a hand with this!" Luke was taken back to reality when Mara´s voice hit him. In fact, the redhead was no longer in front of him, but kneeled down next to some weights and she was now trying to empty a stick long enough to be a sword from the disks. Btu apparently they were too heavy for her.

"Yeah, sure…" he said approaching her and, after some effort, he managed to empty the stick.

"Take this one and let me know if you think it fits" Mara told him as she handed him the metal stick. Luke grabbed it with both hands and hold it like if it was a sword. It had the right length, that was for certain.

"It´s quite heavy, but I can move it."

Mara approached another longer stick with smaller weights on it and started emptying it too "That´s good, for what I know lightsabers are nto heavy, right? Because they are a laser and that stuff…" Mara played dumb on that matter, even though what she was saying made a lot of sense, and considering that Mara was smart, Luke didn´t have any problems believing that she had gotten to that conclusion on her own. The redhead kept talking while she grabbed her own metal bar, long enough to be a combat stick, and swinged it around with both hands "think about it, if you train with something heavier than what you actually use when you fight, and you manage to fight with it, when you use the lighter thing you will move faster, right?"

The young Jedy apprentice looked at the bar he was holding and thought about the girl´s words… Actually they made a lot of sense, so he nodded "Alright then, let´s do it" he said, swinging his sword on his hand a few times ot get used to it and he took his sword fighting stance, the basic form of fighting Ben had taught him, with the edge up and pointing at his opponent.

Mara smiled and grabbed her own bar with both hands, leaving a gap between both her hands, and using it as a combat stick due to its length. She could also perfectly use a bar with the perfect length for a sword, but she didn't want to risk to be asked about how she had learned to use it, only some imperial soldiers had electric stick training after all, specially the ones trained by old Clone Wars veterans, since they said that the ones who were good at it could even hold their own against a Jedi´s lightsaber. But there were no weapons in the imperial academy used like a sword, so it probably might seem suspicious for her to know how to fight with one.

"I´m gonna attack now, see how you move" she announced, before stepping forward and lightly test Luke with two strikes. The first one was with the right end of the stick to Luke´s head, and the next second she used the opposite one to try and hit in on his side.

The young boy discovered that the exercise was not too different to deflecting laser bolts from that training ball, and he didn´t have any trouble blocking both attacks, but Mara didn´t stop there, she twisted on herself to attack again, and she continued attacking making the strikes faster and faster.

Luke was actually surprised about him being able to follow the redhead´s moves, even though he wasn´t able to build any kind of offensive attempt he managed to block or dodge every single strike sharply, he wasn´t sure if he was using the force but in some way it felt similar to when he was training blindfolded and he used his instinct and tried to enhance his other senses with the force, even though he was also trusting his eyes this time.

Mara was actually petty impressed. Young Skywalker wasn´t only keeping up with her without any kind of training, or at least that was what he had said to her, but he was also using the force to try and foresee her moves. Mara was certain about him not doing that on purpose, but by pure instinct, the force flowing from him was surrounding the young buy but it was not controlled, the feeling was primitive and pure, it was clear that the young farmer didn´t know anything about his hidden potential or about how to use practically anything of the power inside him, but she understood why the emperor considered him a potential threat.

They both were exchanging fast and sharp strikes, even though didn´t manage to attack much. It was clear for him that, even though the training Mara had received could have been basic, she at least knew how to attack, in his sessions with Ben he had focused mostly on defense and to use the basic postures of a form which the old Jedi had called "Soresu", but the young Skywalker felt proud of himself for at least being able to hold Mara´s attacks… But if he wasn´t able to attack against Mara how in seven hells was he supposed to beat the Emperor or Vader…?

A moment came when Mara wanted to test something different and when she launched her strike for Luke to block she lightly jumped and kicked the young man on his waist. He didn´t even see it coming and when eh took the hit and backed down Mara took her chance to hit him in the middle of the chest with her stick, managing to make him fall to the ground "Hehehe" she mocked a little "a little advice, farmboy, if you are going to fight against people from the empire you should always expect them to cheat, and you probably should do it too."

The redhead wasn´t sure about why she was giving Luke that kind of advice, sometimes she forgot about him being her target and that was one of those moments, since she had really enjoyed the training with an opponent that had actually surprised her for good.

Luke just smiled while he stayed on the ground, looking right to her green eyes "Not taken" he said, and he suddenly used his legs to grab hers from the ground and made her fall as well.

Using her surprise to his advantage he didn´t waste time and pushed Mara down against the ground, placing himself on top of her, using his own weight to hold her down and catching her wrists with his hands.

"Cheating like this, you mean?" he asked with a smirk on his face, one that was rare on him, actually. But there was something about them training with little clothing that had pushed him to, indirectly, seek for physical contact with her.

Mara couldn't´ help but stay still for a moment when she realized that, without a doubt, Luke Skywalker had beaten her, she couldn't move and no matter how much she struggled she was not going to set free of that since he was stronger than her and on top of that he was only using his weight to hold her, she would need to completely lift him and also beat his strength. It was also true that the redhead could think about a few ways to get out of that situation, one of those was using the force, but she couldn't use any of them without blowing up her cover, so she just decided to play along.

However, while she was lost in her thoughts, she didn´t realize that Skywalker´s face was only a few centimeters away from hers, and when she turned her head to look at him she realized that Skywalker´s smirk was gone now, and his face was tense. Mara suddenly started to feel how some kind of blush threatened to cover her pale cheeks so she decided to end that situation before it could happen "Yeah… exactly like those… Now get off me already…"

She actually would have liked if her voice sounded a little more convinced on her own words, but she doubted that they would have had any kind of effect on Skywalker anyway, Luke just answered.

"Yeah… Sure…" but he didn´t move.

That was starting to make Mara uncomfortable; she didn't like being that close to anyone without her acceptance… Even though what made her feel the most uncomfortable with herself was that she didn´t have that urge of pushing Luke away. Luckily, something interrupted the scene "Ahem!" the cuple turned their heads towards the voice, only to see Han Solo laying against the Gym door´s edge, observing him while he tilted his head curiously "Am I interrupting something?"

Luke gasped and he stood up almost immediately, looking like he had just gotten out of a trance, and he shook his head energetically "No! Not at all!"" he assured, with a voice tone higher than usual "We were just training… She was helping me train with my lightsaber… And to not let my opponent cheat…"

"Sure, of course kid, I didn´t get any other idea" answered the smuggler with a smirk on his lips "By the way, they sent me to get you, I think Leia wants to talk to you about something before breakfast, so move, I don´t want to make her wait."

Luke smiled and cleaned his sweat from his forehead using his forearm, and he turned around to look at Mara, who was standing behind him with her arms crossed and looked at Solo with blank expression. The redhead was upset about the interruption, even though she would never admit the true reason she had wanted that situation to keep going, but it was true that she was slowly gaining more and more of Luke´s trust… It was a pity she hadn´t been able to deep more in that training and closeness so she could have him eating from the palm of her hand.

"I´m sorry, Mara, thank you very much for the training… Seeya at Breakfast!" Luke said, running after Han, who was already walking away, while he waved his goodbyes to Mara.

"Sure the redhead answered with a sincere smile, it was impossible for her not to like that boy´s attitude, even though he was her target.

Once the rebels had gotten away from the gym, Luke walked beside Han "So… do you know what Leia wants from me?" he asked curiously, but Han shook his head.

"Nothing, that was a lie, I was actually looking for you so we could have breakfast" explained Han, btu then he turned towards his friend, a serious look on his face "But then I decided I wanted to talk to you."

"Ehm…" Luke seemed surprise about the sudden attitude change from he Corellian, he didn´t use to be that serious at all "Okay… What is it?"

"It´s about Red, and how you too seem to have grown very close lately" Luke then changed his face as well to a more serious one, Red was the nickname Han had given Mara for obvious reasons, but there was something odd about that.

"Wait a second, I thought you like Mara…"

"That´s true, she doesn´t seem like a bad girl, I like her and she has a good pair, to be honest" Han answered "but Luke, be realistic… How long had she been here? Two weeks? We don´t know anything about her yet, for god´s sake, even intelligence has been searching for a traitor…"

"Hold on there…" the farmboy interrupted Han, surprised "How the hell do you know about the traitor?" Han rolled his eyes.

"C´mon, kid, give me some credit" answered the Corellian, like if was obvious "A mission is compromised because the Empire suddenly knew our convoy´s route and, suddenly, all by chances of destiny, intelligence starts making the entire base go through a routine interrogation and interviews… It´s not too hard to put two and two together, and I am sure I am not the only one who has done it."

"I knew we shouldn´t have make it that obvious…" Luke complained, but then he raised his head "wait a second… Are you implying that Mara is the traitor? Intelligence questioned her one of the firsts and they didn´t find anything at all."

"Look, kid, admit that it looks suspicious… AN imperial attack and she is the only survivor? I don't know if that´s is very…" but Luke interrupted him by raising a finger to make him shut up.

"That´s enough, Han. Look, I know what I am doing, It´s not like I am falling in love with her or anything… She is a great girl and we have a lot in common, end of the story, and besides, I trust her."

"Ant that´s exactly the problem, Luke!" Han said "You barely even know her! You cannot just blindly trust anyone that fast… Hell, you shouldn´t even trust me yet! But you do. And to be fair, we both know you have a tendency to develop… Affection towards the hot girls you rescue."

"That… Hasn´t anything to do with his…" Luke argued, looking down and avoiding Han´s gaze.

"Luke, even though your crush on Leia didn't last long it was there… Who tells you it´s not happening the same with Mara?"

"Because it´s not the same! I feel a connection with her! There is something different, I don't know what it is yet, but it is like we know what the other person is gonna say or do every moment… It´s almost like we can read each other´s minds. What happened with Leia was a misunderstanding, besides, I can take care of myself, Han, I don´t need advice about girls. I should be the one giving them to you as a matter of fact." Luke defended himself, but Han just laughed like if Luke had just said something stupid.

"Pft… C´mon now, kid… Like if I needed your advice to get la…"

"My advice, Han, is that you should stop messing around with Leia, because It´s going to be too late fi you keep it this way." Luke lectured him interrupting the corellian a second time.

Han´s face abruptly changed when he heard that "Where the hell did you get that idea? There is nothing between Leia and I, she is not even my type… A princes… No thanks."

"Sure thing, I have seen you constantly flirt with her."

Luke, I flirt with every single girl around me."

"Oh yeah? I haven´t seen you flirt with anyone since you know Leia" the blonde answered matter of factly, leaving Han without knowing what to say when eh realized Luke was right "Look, I know there is that little issue about you having a bounty on your head… But you are with us, Han, nothing is going to happen to you. We are at war, anything can happen anytime, you would be dumb if you let this chance slip through your fingers. Now, if you excuse me, I am going to have a shower, I need it before breakfast."

And without any more words, Luke turned around and started walking towards his room, leaving Han lost in his thoughts in the middle of the base´s corridor.

 **And that´s it! I guess it´s worth warning you that Leia and Han´s story is not going to have a lot of variations from how it goes across the original trilogy, since I honestly think it is perfect that way xD However, I want to introduce some things happening between scenes, like this conversation you have just read, tell me what you think about it even though they are not the main couple.**

 **But let´s talk about the main couple now. I know hot training is a cliché but I think Mara would try and get physically close to Luke to try and earn his trust, don´t you guys think the same? Even though we see her a little more open and soft with the young Jedi. Where would that lead? You guys will have to wait to find out.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, like always, in the next one the plot will advance towards the Empire, some developing will happen and some important events will take place… I hope xD Any building critic , idea or just opinion you guys have about the chapter or the story in general would be appreciated, I want to know what you guys think about how this is going, I am writing it for you guys, after all. So you know, don´t be shy and leave me your reviews. : )**

 **Nothing else form y part, see you guys next chapter, don't forget to comment, be good and may the force be with you :P**


	6. Lost

**I´m back! Alright, I´m gonna explain a few things regarding my absence of updating, and that is that I have been trying (and most likely will continue with it) a new way of writing this story.**

 **You guys know this fic is a translation of my other fic in Spanish, and that is the one I write first and then translate the chapters to update them here. Until now I have been doing that, I wrote a chapter in Spanish and then translated it, but I found out that it kinda cuts me off the muse to write if I have to stop after writing a chapter to basically repeat it, when what I really want to do is continue the story.**

 **So, for now on (And that´s why it took me this long to update) I am going to write a few more chapters in Spanish and then translate them all in English, so you guys will have a few chapters faster and then have like four or five every 4 or 3 days. How does that sound? I think that way it will be easier for me to follow the story and be more motivated between chapters, and that way I will be able to bring you a better story… Isn´t that what we all want after all? xD**

 **So anyway, let me know what you guys think about that new system and about the story. I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as I am. Also, thank you to everyone who is now following or who favorite my story, and I am so grateful for all of you who took a minute to leave a review, it means a lot to me : )**

 **AzureTemplar3535: Oh well I am glad it wasn´t boring hehe. I knew it was a cliché but I think it was something that could happen and I also thought that it would be good for the characters. Also yeah, I think that, between all the main characters, Han was the one who most likely would suspect from her. And I am sorry, even though it was a good idea I already used Madine in chapter 2, I think it was 2, I am not exactly following the EU´s timeline tbh, as you probably had noticed xDDD But I think you will like the mission I chose for Mara. Thank you for following me and I hope you enjoy the next chapter.**

 **So, after everything said and done, let´s go straight to chapter 6!**

Lost

When Luke got to his quarters he was in a very bad mood because of his chat with Han... How could the Corellian even think he would not be able to tell if Mara was a traitor? Hell… He was not an idiot in that regard, and he was good judging people, he had always been… He sat down on the bed and took his shirt off to think a little. He felt a little mortified and even hurt in that moment, even though he understood Han worrying about him.

He had the theory about the smuggler seeing him as the little brother he never had, and the young Jedi really liked that side of him, they were both friends after all and it was always a good thing to have a guy like that on your side if you needed him. He had a lot more experience after all, and Luke himself didn´t know much about life if he was going to be honest… But his gut was telling him that Mara was one to trust, it might be one of those feelings Ben always talked about, and Han shouldn´t stay out of business that weren´t his…

He liked Mara? Well, of course he liked her! How could he not like her? She was a fun, kind, smart and confident girl… She was also a fighter and, as an extra, she was the sexiest woman in the entire base… But there was a huge step between liking her and being in love with her… For god´s sake! It was too early to start talking about that… Wait… Too early? He actually thought about the possibility of falling in love with Mara? He then forced himself to shook his head and to push those thoughts out of his mind.

He stood up and decided to take a shower; he still had around twenty minutes before breakfast time came, so he had enough time for it.

He entered the fresher and stripped before entering the shower, letting the hot water slip down his muscles, relaxing them after the workout, and he started to calm himself. To be honest, Hand had good intention… And what he was saying could even make sense. They were looking for a traitor after all, and even if it was true that intelligence had been unable to find any proof of an actual mole being inside the base, there was no other explanation for the empire knowing their route plans on Ison... And it was because of that traitor the Renegade Squadron had been completely blown up from the sky.

Also, Han didn´t know that, but Luke had started feeling that presence in the force the very same day that happened, and now that he put two and two together… It was logical to think that, since he detected it during his meditation and he hadn´t felt anything alike any other day in the base, the force sensitive person had arrived to the base that day as well, and the only person he knew that was new at Home One that day was Mara.

However, Home One was an enormous ship with a lot of hangars and all the rebel cells across the galaxy crossed paths there at some point, so a lot of people could perfectly have arrived that day without Luke knowing… And besides, a force user didn´t necessarily mean a traitor, in fact, there were as few force users in the empire as in the rebellion. Or well, there were until Vader murdered Ben.

Luke´s face changed under the water when his thoughts focused on the lord Sith… That man had taken almost everything from him. First he killed his father and helped the emperor hunt down the jedi and create the empire, so he had to be adopted by his aunt and uncle and live knowing absolutely nothing about himself. He wasn´t complaining about his childhood, or how Beru and Owen had raised him, they had been the best parents he could have asked for, but if he had been raised by his own parents in the old republic he was sure that he could have still been in touch with them, Owen was his father´s brother, after all. Vader had also taken his out and uncle away from him, true that he wasn´t the one pulling the trigger, but he was the one in charge of searching RD-D2 and C3-PO… Which had ended with the murder in cold blood of Owen and Beru Lars, and Vader approved those acts from his soldiers, just like the rest of the empire. And last but not least, the masked figure murdered Ben… Luke had a ton of reasons to feel that hate against Darth Vader, and he was determined on becoming a Jedi so he could face him, and kill him.

He lightly sighed then, turning the shower off, Han had good intentions and what he said was not madness like Luke had thought at first. He stood still for a moment, looking at himself in the mirror… What if it was true? What if Mara was the traitor? Things actually seemed to fit together, she was the only survivor of the shuttle, but it could actually be that the imperials had let her live deliberately… But Luke´s thoughts didn´t fly further since eh shook his head. No, Mara could not be a spy or a force user… He would know…

…

Han was walking through the ship´s hallways with both hands buried in his pockets. At first, eh would like to be mad at the kid for what he said about Leia, Luke had no idea about how complicated the situation was, but in the end it seemed like he wasn´t able to be angry, since his friend was absolutely right, at least about the last part of eh conversation, that is. The Corellian still thought that the young Jedi shouldn´t open up to anyone that fast, and specially to Mara, who was someone he just met and in the middle of an investigation to look for a traitor.

He wasn´t sure about how, but he had ended up heading towards Leia´s room, and he practically bumped into her while the princess was getting out of it. When she spotted him, she raised an eyebrow "Captain Solo… What can I do for you?"

Luckily for him, Han was a guy fast to react, so he shrugged with a perfect Corellian indifference "Not really, I just thought that you would like to have company during breakfast, your highness." He said with a smirk.

"Oh well, I guess that if you already bothered to come here it would only be rude to refuse, wouldn´t it?" she answered, smiling back "Anyway, how is that you woke up this early?"

"Oh well, I had no of doing it at first, but considering Luke has been going to the gym early these days I decided to take a shot and see if I could catch him there, I needed ot talk to him."

"And" Leia asked, encouraging him to keep talking while the pair walked towards the cafeteria.

"Han! Don´t tell me they were…"

"What? No, c´mon, It´s Luke we are talking about, for god´s sake… He needs at least another year to get to that point…" the captain interrupted "They were just training… But still… I don´t like it much… He barely knows Mara."

"I know… But I don´t think we can do anything to make him change his mind… I dunno, Han, she might like him too." The princess pointed out.

"C´mon, Leia! Tell me that nothing about Mara Jade seems a little odd… I like the girl, she is smart, sarcastic, charismatic, a good pilot… But the situation itself is suspicious, and I know about the traitor."

Leia sighed and nodded "Yeah, I know what you mean, but intelligence investigated everything, Han, she is clear, and even if she looks suspicious, we cannot judge her from the start, she doesn´t deserve it, she might have really deflected and wanted to get away from how the Empire does things… And forgetting about finding proofs is something they do perfectly well."

Han rolled his eyes, he knew she was right, of course "Anyway, I am keeping an eye on Mara"

Leia chuckled a little "Don´t let Luke hear you say that or he might as well grow jealous" she commented with a bright smile "now let´s go have breakfast, Captain Solo, I´m hungry."

 _Home One – Twoo weeks later._

"We´re taking heavy fire, leader, they came out of nowhere!"

"All fighters take evasive actions, now!" Luke answered in the coms.

"That´s easier said than done!" These damned ships are slower than a Hutt trying to get up!" Dack complained, while he followed their leader.

Mara, alongside the rest of the alliance command and some pilots, was listening to everything gathered on the command room of Home One. Both her and Kasan Moore, another defector female pilot from the empire who also was in charge of that operation, were ready to fly as Rogues, but commander Skywalker had decided that it was not the best mission to start since, as a bombing mission, they were forced to fly the extremely slow Y-Wing, armed with proton bombs .

However, The alliance had provided the squadron with some backup pilots, so the Rogues, usually formed by 8 pilots, were now 12 for that mission.

The Rogue Squadron had been assigned the attack and destruction of the imperial facilities on Kile II system, and things didn´t seem to go wrong at first. The rebels managed to go out the hyperspace without being noticed, but when they got close to the shield generators through a cannon that was supposed to provide them with cover from the radar they were attacked by an extremely large group of TIE fighters and interceptors. They didn´t know where they came from and things had gone south from there, even though the Rogues were accomplishing their mission for now, they had destroyed the shield generator and bombed a few imperial facilities, but they were finding themselves more and more surrounded by imperial troops while the reinforcements started to get there.

In a normal situation, like if they were flying their X-Wings, the rebels wouldn´t have had any kind of problems with being in inferiority and destroy the imperial fighters as they showed up, but the bombers weren´t ships for ship to ship combat, and they were not having a good time.

The redhead clenched her hands against the table and crossed her sight with Leia Organa, but she didn´t return the look, she was too busy listening to every communication and trying to figure out what the heck was happening on Kyle II.

Mara was worried, she wished she was out there… she couldn´t think about what she would do if anything happened to Luke…To Skywalker… She corrected herself that thought almost immediately, she didn´t wan anything happening to him because he ws the Emperor´s great Wish, and if he died it would mean she had failed her mission, and that terrified her… In fact, the redhead was more frightened than what she had been in her entire life, she was afraid that, suddenly, Luke´s voice would go silent on the coms.

"Rogue four, three, five, six, seven, eight and nine, cover our advance, cover fire, we´re going in! The others, with me!"

"Copy that, Rogue Leader!" eleven voices answered almost at the same time, and then Luke informed.

"Home One, this is Rogue Leader, we are launching our attack run over the space port."

The communications went silent for a few minutes and Mara couldn´t help but chew her lower lip, until Wedge´s voice came in "This is Rogue two! The target exploded! I repeat, the target is down!"

"Good job, two" Luke answered "we are heading towards the communication towers."

"This is Rogue ten! I´ve got one on my tail!" I can´t take it off! I don´t have enough power!" the com went in and Tycho Celchu, a recent Imperial defector who had been accepted as a permanent pilot for the Rogues, answered back.

"I´m too far, ten! Fly over the cannon and I will have it in range!"

"I can´t! I´m too slow! I have to… AAAAAAARGH!" the communication with Rogue Ten was suddenly cut.

"We have lost Rogue Ten, I repeat, Rogue Ten ahs been shut down." Celchu informed then.

Most of the people around the command table looked down or made a gesture, but Mara simply kept looking at the table, completely tense, waiting for Luke´s voice to be heard. However, it was not the commander´s voice the next to come out. "Rogue Seven! Watch out! You have one…" a young pilot named Kit started to say. He was a new permanent member for the Rogues as well, and after a few silent seconds, he informed "We have lost Rogue seven, I repeat, we have lost Rogue Seven."

Admiral Ackbar raised his head then and talked to the communication table "Rogue Leader, this is Home One, retreat, you already caused enough damage to the facilities and two losses in a twelve pilots´ squad is a high percentage to risk and continue having casualties…"

"Copy that, home one" Luke´s voice answered "You heard that! Retreat! Turn the ships around! Everyone, form in two, stay with your wingmen, avoid conflict, we need to reach jump space."

Everyone copied and there were some silent minutes in the coms, until Wes Janson, Wedge´s wingman, talked "More Ties! We are surrounded!"

"Get out of there! We cannot reach you in time!" Luke shouted, his voice clearly showing how desperate he was "Hold on! We are coming! Dack, follow me!"

"Luke, Its an ambush. I don't know where they came from. I don't have nav. control anymore. Can't... steer her... straight... main computer offline... targeting computer offline... AAHHH!"

Then silence "Rogue two is down!" Wes informed after a few seconds "I repeat, Wedge is down! Crash on surface! I can´t see him!"

"Does someone have visual? Can someone see Wedge?" Luke asked "Hobbie! He crashed near your position! Do you have visual?"

"Affirmative, leader" another voice answered, Hobbie´s voice "I confirm that the fighter is down… Wedge is alive, I repeat, Rogue two is alive."

"I will get close for the picking!" Luke announced, almost immediately, but Zev´s voice interrupted.

"Negative, Rogue leader, I spot imperial troops approaching. They are taking Rogue two into custody."

General Madine, at Home One, looked at General Rieekan, one of the Rebellion´s high command members and boss of the intelligence unit, who had collaborated with Kasan More to organize this operation "Rogue leader, follow your orders, finish with the retreat, I repeat, retreat… There will be not picking up."

It could be clearly heard how Luke growled on the coms, but he didn´t say anything against it, he just ordered "Rogue Squadron, retreat."

They didn´t have to wait long until the Rogues informed that they were out of the planet, and General Rieekan talked again ""Rogue Squadron, this is General Rieekan, excellent work. The sensor array and spaceport facilities on Kile II are now inoperable. Imperial activities are sure to slow down in this sector… Now come back home." And with that, the communication was over, meaning that the fighters had jumped into hyperspace.

…

Mara followed the high command to greet Rogue squadron back on the hangar. The seven surviving ships didn´t take long to land once the welcoming party was ready. The redhead then opened herself to the force and frowned a little… That didn´t feel like Luke. It was him, but Mara had never sensed the young man´s mind so angry, frustrated or even furious. Those feelings she had seen a lot of times in Vader or the Emperor, even though the difference with the soon to be Jedi was that he wasn´t letting those emotions to overwhelm and control him, there wasn´t an inch of dark side on him.

As soon as the pilots started to land the Emperor´s hand started to focus more on the Leader. Her expression was more serious than what she had never saw on his face; he even took of his gloves and angrily tossed them against the control panel of his fighter, just before taking off his helmet and walking down the stairs.

Princess Leia was the first one to get close to greet Luke with a comforting hug "Luke… I´m so sorry…" he hugged her back but didn´t smile or even talked, just continued his path- Most of the high command´s members approached him, but he just gave them some respect gestures but didn´t stop to talk or anything to keep walking.

Mara was waiting on the hangar´s exit, she didn´t like that feeling from Luke for some reason, she knew her mission as to turn him down to the Emperor and that, once done it was going to be much worse, young Skywalker was going to become something like Vader, or even darker, but at that time, she wanted to help him go through those feelings.

"Luke…" she started to say when they both crossed paths.

"I´m sorry, Mara, I am not in the talking mood right now…." He interrupted her, stopping to lock his look into hers for a few seconds before turning around and keep walking towards his quarters.

For a bright moment, Mara thought about staying there, how that farmboy felt was nothing of her business after all. But something in her, maybe pride, or maybe that she cared more about that boy than what she wanted to admit, forced her to toss that idea away.

As soon as Luke entered his room he stripped from his flying suit to be left only on his underwear. He punched the pillow and, by accident, the clock on his night table fell to the floor.

The young Jedi stared at it for a moment… Had he done that? He didn´t have a lot of time to think about it since someone knocked the door "Luke, open the door."

The boy sighed, of course he wouldn´t be able to keep Mara Jade away from him against her will, everyone else would respect his space, she wouldn't. So he just opened the door.

The redhead appeared standing in front of him and her first reaction was to look down to his underwear "You know, Skywlalker? I am not sure if I wanna know what you were doing before I came…"

Luke looked down and realized the situation "Shit!" he cursed, and entered the room to rush and look for a pair of pants on his wardrobe "I´m sorry… I forgot."

"No big deal, it wasn´t an unpleasant view if that´s what you are worried about, though" she teased, entering without permission and sitting down on the bed "People are worried, specially Leia. I think she has been being kind to Solo and all, I am concerned."

"There is nothing special going on with me, Mara" he replied "I am angry, of course, I think I have my rights… What is wrong with hat? I just lost three pilots, and my best friend among them."

"Is this the first time you lose friend? Because I hardly doubt that" she sighed a little then. She didn't want to be hard on him, the rebels were supposed o be supportive with each other, and she had come here to make Luke feel better, not to criticize him "Look… I am sorry about Wedge and the others, but you couldn´t do anything about it, it was an ambush. You were lucky that huge number of you survived."

"Technically… It´s my responsibility" argued the rebel form Tatooine "I am the Squad Leader, I am supposed to keep them safe."

"And you are doing a great job, Luke" Mara was starting to ask herself if that boy wanted to take the weight of all the galaxy on his shoulders… Even though he already did in a way… That pressure about being the one supposed to beat Vader and the emperor was basically saying that he was the one destined to save the galaxy on the rebels´ eyes "The Rogues are, by far, the ones who had faced the most deadly situations and they barely had casualties… You are a great commander, Luke." She gave him a genuine smile, one of those she only showed when the two of them were alone, and she caressed his arm carefully "Your pilots are… We are very proud of you." Luke sighed, it truly was comforting to hear that, specially coming from Mara. His blue eyes locked on her emerald ones and he suddenly had the urge to touch her face, but he lightly shook his head and looked down, letting out a sigh.

"Tell that to Wedge when they execute him on Coruscant…"

"I don´t think they do that, actually" Mara commented without thinking too much about what she was revealing. That was something that was starting to happen, the redhead now was talking too much when she was with Luke, saying things she shouldn´t "considering the sector where he was caught and that he is a prisoner suitable for interrogation they most likely would take him to Kessel…"

"What did you say?" the Jedi asked, raising his head to look at her, a little bit of hope now showing in his eyes.

"Kessel, you know; the main prison around this sector. It´s very secure, you can only go in and out by the port or using the train that transports prisoners…" she stopped talking at that moment, looking at Luke… She just screwed up; she had just revealed important imperial information to the rebels… Her, the emperor´s hand, just helped the rebellion. But Luke seemed to suddenly glow with that optimism of his; in fact, he was screaming it in the force, and the redhead couldn´t help but share it a little.

"Get your X-Wing ready, lieutenant Jade" like said then "we are going on a mission in five hours."

Way she got excited about that, since she passed the access tests for the Rogue Squadron she had wanted to proof herself to them, due to pride in some way but also to show the rebels that someone trained by the empire could be as good as them, if not better… However, right now she was only thinking about flying next to Luke "At your service, Commander Skywalker." She answered, standing up then to go out of the room.

 **And here´s the end of the chapter xD Welp, I guess you guys noticed but I want you guys to know that I have changed the EU to fit my purposes a little hehe.**

 **So Mara is developing as a character thanks to Luke, and apparently now she has some kind of feelings we all knew were gonna appear, right? And also Luke shows a little angry and furious face, would it be the Dark Side? Would they rescue Wedge form Kessel´s prison?**

 **So let me tell you that, the next chapter will be basically Mara´s first mission with a surprise before it starts, and after that we will finally catch up with the Empire Strikes Back, and we will get right into the film´s plot hehe. I really hope you guys are liking this little "introduction" to the situation before going for the movies.**

 **I really want to know what you guys think, any kind of critic, suggestion, idea or opinion is more than welcomed, don´t be shy, I want to be in contact with my readers. Also, I will try and update in three days or so, since now I only have to translate the chapter hehe.**

 **I think that´s all. See you all next chapter, don´t forget to review, be good and may the force be with you :P**


	7. Assault on Kessel

**Welp, here I am. I know I am a little late but a few things happened that didn´t allow me to translate this chapter sooner, but I told you guys it would be soon.**

 **I really hope you guys like this chapter it is one of the hardest I have written so far and I would love to know your opinions about it, I will explain the reason in the end because not spoilers here.**

 **I dunno how much it will take for me to update since I am gonna start college soon once again and holidays are coming to end… sniff…**

 **Anyway, thank you to everyone who favorite or followed my story, and I am so grateful to the ones who had the time to review and let me know what they think xD**

 **AzureTemplar3535: Oh well thank you. I dunno how much of her I will include since It´s not a character I know a lot about, but of course I wanted her to have a part on this xD Well then, I hope you like how I wrote it then.**

 **Alright, no more to say on my part, let´s go with the new chapter.**

Assault on Kessel

"The plan you are suggesting is too risky, Commander Skywalker… I know for sure that Kessel´s facilities are one of the most secure ones the empire has ever made, to try and evacuate a single prisoner from it would have more casualties of what we can afford to recover a pilot, even if it is excellent… I am sure you understand." General Madine said. The meeting with the high command was going more or less the way Luke expected, it was true that they couldn't afford to lose a lot of people only to free a prisoner, after all. Even if Wedge was a great pilot, Rogue Squadron was full of those, and if they were sent to free the corellian the losses wouldn´t be worth the reward. However, the young rebel didn´t quit quite yet.

"With all due respect, general" he said "I am not asking you to organize a rescue mission against the prison… I think I figured out a way to rescue Captain Antilles that is a lot less risky."

"And where did you get that information from, Commander?" asked General Rieekan "If you have a source of imperial information you should have shared it with intelligence."

Luke nodded "I am aware, General, actually it was just a sudden conversation with Lieutenant Jade which made me think about this plan." Mon Mothma and Rieekan shared a concerned look hearing that statement.

"A conversation with Lieutenant Jade?" repeated the Rebel Alliance´s leader.

"That is correct. When I told her that Wedge was going to be executed in Coruscant she corrected me. Like all of you should know, Captain Antilles would be moved to Kessel´s penitentiary facilities… And Lieutenant Jade explained to me how they move the prisoners."

"I understand… I guess she would have that information just like the other Imperial defectors… But how can that be relevant in any way?" Madine asked "The prisoners are transported from the spaceport to the prison aboard of a train with a heavy vigilance… I cannot see a safe way to approach and retrieve the prisoner; the Empire would blow the train up before we can recover our men. I know how they act, it was one of the reasons why I left."

"We could set up a lightning attack, take out the escort before they even know what hit them and just disable the train without damaging it, then a shuttle could land to retrieve all the prisoners. It could be a good way to get more recruits for the Alliance, not only rescue Captain Antilles, I think it can be worth a shot." Luke suggested, who had already thought about the plan.

"And how in the world do you think we would be able to do that?" Asked Rieekan, curiously, he knew Skywalker pretty well and the young pilot wouldn´t have suggested that if he didn´t have a plan already. And to be honest, he was right, managing to get a complete prisoner transport would make a great win for the alliance.

"We will use Ion cannons. X-Wings are very modifiable as you must know. It wont be hard to install some Ion cannons, even if they don´t have a lot of power. If we manage to hit the train enough times with them we would disable it without destroying it so we will give time for a shuttle to land… But we must hurry if we want to get to the train in time.." The commander explained. The high command´s members looked then at Mon Mothma. It was not a bad plan, so they were waiting for her final decision. She rubbed her chin for a few seconds, silently meditating, and then she spoke.

"General Rieekan, dispose our engineers to work on assemble the Ion cannons to Rogue Squadron´s X-Wings." She ordered. The General nodded and exited the room, followed by Madine as well. Mothma looked at Luke "Commander Skywalker, I must say it is a plan worthy of Anakin Skywalker."

When the former senator mentioned his father, Luke opened his eyes in awe "You knew my father, ma´am?" he couln´t help but ask. He had been a lot of time in the alliance and the generals talked a lot about Anakin Skywalker, the condecorated General in the Clone Wars and one of the best Jedi warriors the Old Republic had. However, when he had asked someone no one knew how he was, they had only heard things form the battlefield. Luke heard that Ackbar served with him during a battle, but the young man didn´t have the chance to talk to him about it yet.

However, Mon Mothma nodded "Indeed" she said "He was a great Soldier and Jedi, but he also was a very energetic person and with a good imagination in combat… I remember this oen time when some Bounty hunters assaulted the senate and captured me alongside other senators; Princess Leia´s father was there. THye locked us as hostages in one of the senate´s chambers… Anakin was in the building that day by chance and apparently he was unarmed. He eliminated a few of them before he was caught as well and they threatened to blow up the entire room and kill us all with it. Anakin recovered his weapon and had the crazy idea of cutting the floor under us, we fell down to the room under and he saved all of our lives."

Luke couldn´t help but smile with that story "Wow…" he couldn´t fuind anything else to say. That was the first real tale he had about his father, and to be honest his imagination was already flying… HE could picture Anakin Skywalker like a great Jedi hero who fought bounty hunters and rescued hostages in his free time "Thank you for telling me this, ma´man." He bowed respectfully. Mothma gave him a warm smile, he could understand him quite well.

"IT was my pleasure, Skywalker. I must say I didn´t know your father quite well, but you look a lot like him." She explained "I was actually surprised when I knew a Jedi had a son, but now I am happy about it. The Alliance survived because Anakin Skywalker broke the rules… I shouldn´t be surprised, though, he used to do that a lot."

That information took the young Jedi completely out of guard "Break the rules? What do you mean with that?"

"Well… You dind´t know?" Mon Mothma seemed confused with that "I thought that it would be one of the first things Obi-Wan would tell you when you started training… You see… IT was well known that the Jedi had forbidden to involve in any kind of romantic relationship… That´s why it is surprising that you… Well, that you are here."

"My father broke the rules to be with someone?"

"That´s my guess, yes. I can´t Imagine Anakin having a relationship completely out of feelings… It´s nto confirmed though. It seems that, if your father indeed had a relationship, he kept it in secret."

"I… Ma´am…" started Luke, gulping a little with expectations "Wouldn´t you… by any chance… Know, or at least have an idea about… Who my mother could be?"

The Alliance´s leader looked at him for a long moment, and then sighed… She could just say no… The only thing she could give him were gesses after all. But when she saw young Skywalker almost begging for any drop of information about his parents, she just coulnd´t help it and try to lighten that curiosity a little "I do have a theory...It was never confirmed though. The one I think it could be your mother died shortly after order 66, after all, just when your father died, so that might establish their connection."

"W-Who was she?"

Mothma gave him a sad look "I don´t wanna give you false hopes and then turn out that my theory is not right, Skywalker…"

"Please, I don´t care… I would rather know any clue, about anything… You are the only person I know who´s able to tell me about them. Obi-Wan was going to, but he died before he even had the chance." Luke´s voice was imploring without him even realizing it, but he was desperate to get any drop of information about his parents.

The politican looked at the poor boy and understood it. What she was about to tell him might not be true but, until he discovered the truth on his own, it was better for him to have that image than live in ignorance "Alright… Anakin Skywalker was very good friends with Senator Padmé Amidala, from Naboo system. She was one of the Rebellion´s founders, alongside Bail Organa and myself. Padmé I knew very well, she was a great political ally, an even greater talker and a strong and fair woman, who always did the best for her people and the people in the galaxy. She was one of the first people to oppose to the Clone Wars… And well, Anakin and her were very close, they could be seen together quite often, and that was not usual since the Jedi tried ot stay away from politics. Also, they knew each other when Anakin was a child, that´s why I thought it could be… Besides, Anakin was very tall… Padmé wasn´t." She added it the end of her speech, clearly pointing the young rebel´s short height.

Luke smiled and nodded a little, it was not much, but probably she couldn´t tell him more. However, now he had a name: Padmé Amidala, senator and great person, founder of the rebellion. That thought made him feel proud "Thank you for telling me this, ma´am, I truly appreciate it."

"I am sorry it is vague and not confirmed information. When we win the war and get to Coruscant I am sure you could search for Padmé´s name in the archives. There will be a lot more detailed Intel about her life, I can only tell you that she was one of the best people I have ever known." The woman smiled even more then "That´s enough, Commander Skywalker, you may go now, you have a mission to prepare for."

Luke bowed his head with respect, a great smile on his face, and went out the room happier than what he had been in his life before.

 _5 hours later_

"Alright, Rogues" Luke announced to his group of pilots, who had gathered in the hangar for the mission report. The squadron was once again formed by the usual number of people, eight, with the redhead entering in exchange od Wedge. Zev Zenesca, Tycho Celchu, Dak Ralter, Wes JAnson, Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, Kit Valent and Mara Jade, all of them wearing the orange flying suit, looked at him and listened quietly. There were two available pilots to cover Wedge´s spot: Kasan Moore and Mara Jade, both of them were excellent pilots. However, Rogue Squadron always operated with a pair number of pilots, since they flew in groups of two, with a "main" pilot and a wingman in each group. That is, no pilot flew alone, so there was only one spot for one of the girls, and Luke had decided it should be Mara, since Kasan could be useful in the command room considering her services on Kessel before she defected the empire.

"Our mission couldn´t be more simple" the leader continued "which doesn´t mean it will be easy… We must infiltrate Kessel undetected, flying low and trying to not be caught by the radar. We might need to use the Ion cannon to deactivate some sensors, but I wouldn't recommend it. If one of those stops working the Imperials may suspect something. Once we are there, we will locate the train transporting the prisoners, we take down the security before they know what hit them, and disable the train with the Ion cannons so the shuttle can land… All of this before the empire can send backup. ¿Any questions?"

Zev´s hand raised in the air "Is it safe to think that Wedge is in that train?" the young Jedi smirkd a little when he looked at the squadron´s veteran, probably all of the pilots wanted to ask that question, but of course it was the third in command the one who decided to ask it.

"That´s right, the train carries a group of prisoners. And Wedge is in that group" Luke explained "Alright… If the Imperial reinforcements get there before the shuttle has taken off it will be our job to provide cover and protection to it until it makes the jump to hyperspace… Is that clear?" everyone nodded "Very good, to your fighters, and may the force be with us."

While all the pilots made the final checks to their ships, the young leader approached the new recruit "You ready?" he asked, and the redhead turned around to look at him.

"I was born ready, Skywalker" she said with a proud smile "Don´t you worry, we will get Antilles back even before you realize it." He gave her a thankful smile, and she just grabbed his arm for support "Seriously, Luke, it´s a good plan, and we are good pilots… And besides, we have a great leader, what could possibly go wrong?" Luke couldn't help but chuckle to that.

"With the Rogues´ luck? Anything."

"With the Rogues´ luck, we wil get out of there anyways" she shot back "Now go to your ship, we can´t get off without our leader and we have a train to catch."

The male pilot nodded and ran to his fighter. Mara looked at him while he got away and sighed lightly, She had never known anyone like this boy… He really seemed optimistic, they were about to attack an extremely protected Imperial facility and he didn´t look like he was specially worried… She, however, was worried. . Luckily she was whit then, she didn't want anything to happen to Skywalker… I mean, he was the Emperor´s great desire and if he died she would fail on giving Skywalker to him… The boy´s welfare didn´t matter to her personally, of course.

With that last thought on her mind, and lecturing herself for the need of reminder about Skywalker´s role I her life, she got on her fighter… It was weird to fly it, she was used to the TIE fighters, that ship had less maneuverability, but it had shields, she had never needed to redirect between the different system the X-Wing had… But she was The Emperor´s Hand, she was able to fly anything and she had proved it many times before and recently, when she passed the test to access Rogue squadron. She growled, She had to stop thinking like that, it wasn´t important if she passed the test, getting gin the Rogue Squadron was only a way to get closer to Skywalker, and it was evident that the boy was falling more and more in her spell… She didn´t have time to think more, though, since Luke asked confirmation in the coms, so they all took flight towards Kessel.

….

"Alright Rogues, we are approaching the target" announced Luke through he coms when the planet appeared "We have the coordenates and the route the train should follow… We will change formations. Mara, you are my wingman. Dak, you are Wes´."

Luke thought it would be better that way, it was Mara´s first mission and she shouldn´t be a main pilot yet. The newbies used to be wingmen for a while. So it was wiser for Wes, who usually was Wedge´s wingman but who had more experience, to be a main pilot and Dak his wingman, so Luke could help Mara in her debut.

"Copy that, Rogue leader" the three of them said, and Mara placed her fighter on Luke´s wing, to cover him."

"Good, stay low, avoid the radars and connect the life scanners… We need to locate that train before they locate us and before it gets to the facility." The eight rebel fighters descended at mid speed and placed themselves almost in the groud, flying at close formation "Any signals?" Luke asked after a while.

"Rogue Leader, this is Kassan Moore form central command. I suggest you to go across the canon located twenty meters to East and then follow the river. Someo f the minerals there would hide your track for the imperial radar."

"Wouldn't they interfere with our own scanners?" Luke asked.

"Not if you are using them at long range, those rocks don´t have a huge effect area and the waves the cause only avoid reception, not emission."

"Copy that, Kasaan, you heard that Rogues, change of curse" he announced before heading East, it dind´t take them long to find the river.

"Leaader… I got some readings… Some vehicles… It seems to be a bunch of people inside, but they are nto close to the stablished route." Informed Zev.

"They are not near the route?" Wes asked then "Could they have changed it?"

"Negative, Rogue Leader." They heard Kassan´s voice "It´s not for sure, the Empire sometimes uses baits as a routine to create confusion about the prisoner transporting." I reccomand to check the transport with a short range scanner. IF there are a lot of guns, then there wont be prisoners there."

Luke thought about it for a moment "Copy that, Kasan… Alright, let´s split up… Wes and Dak, you two come with us, we will go to catch the train and check it. The others go to the transports, try not to be detected, and if you are get off the planet, try to make it like you were the only ones here, don´t try and help us, alright? If you discover it´s a bait… Then come to us as soon as you can."

"Copy that. Leader" Zev said then "You heard that, follow me" without Wedge, Zeev was the next one on command, since he was a veteran and he had leaded his own squadron once, but it was disbanded when they divided his unit, so he jined the Rogues and he hadn´t regretted it since then.

Mara clenched her teeth… Only four fighters? How in the world were they gonna get through the train´s defenses? She knew those pilots were good, but no one was that good "Ehm… Leader… Are you sure it´s a good idea to risk and find ourselves outnumbered?" she asked on the coms.

"Hehehe… You heard that, Dak? The newbie is worried about us." Wes said, chuckling.

"That´s sweet, Mara, but don´t worry, we get ten TIEs for lunch every day." You just do what we do." Luke couldn´t help but shake his head in amusement.

"Don´t worry, Mara, we will be careful and we will try and not be found. Also, if we see we won´t be able to take care of the escorts even with the surprise attack, we will wait for the others."

Mara still wasn´t sure about it, but she nodded "Copy that, leader."

They flew for a few minutes until the redhead had something on her scanner "I got readings… It has to be the train, several life forms on board." She informed.

"Alright, let´s get close so we can run a short range scanner to see how many weapons they´ve got. Wait here, I will do it."

The girl didn't like waiting, but Luke was the leader, so he supposedly was the best of them for the job. They waited for a few seconds until the young man´s voice went through the coms.

"Confirmed, they are the prisoners… Attack now! Use the Ion cannon, remember, we want to shut down the train, not destroy it! I count ten TIEs and ground troopers, let´s make this quick!"

When he gave them the signal three X-Wings joined their leader and their engines roared to launch their attack. On the first run they had already reduced the TIEs to sic, while Dak took care of the ground troopers.

"Mara, start firing that Ion cannon before they react!" the Leader ordered, and the redhead didn´t complain. Her X-Wing started firing little blue energy balls and the transport started getting slowly electrocuted, but it would take a while for it to lose enough power to stop.

Meanwhile, the imperial Troopers continued to fall, and shortly the entire escort was destroyed, so the remaining X-Wings formed to start firing the Ion cannons as well until they finally managed to get the train to stop.

"That´s perfect. Good job Rogues… Home one, please, make the shuttle quick before the Imperial backup arrives."

"Copy that, Rogue Leader, hold your position." Home One replied. The Shuttle was close, but it had to do a jump to get close and not be detected.

"Luke! I think we underestimated the imperials´ reaction time!" Wes said then "At least thirty TIEs approaching at full speed!"

Mara growled, she knew something like that was going to happen. It seemed like the rebels didn´t give the Empire the credit it deserved after all.

"Rogues! Stay tight! We need to protect the train, we don´t know if the Imperials will shoot to kill!" Luke ordered, while the TIE´s started to be on sight "Here they are!"

In an instant, the sky had turned into a battlefield. Luckily or unluckily for the rebels, the TIEs didn´t seem to want to attack the train, so they were focusing on taking them down so they could take their prisoners back. Thee young Jedi clenched his teeth while he tried ot get rid of five fighters chasing him, the situation was not encouraging at all, and Mara had realized that. The problem was that she was also dealing with four TIEs on her own on her tail, and was too far away from him to get there in time.

What she didn't expect was that maneuver form Luke´s fighter. Suddenly the craft made a 180º twist in the air so now he was facing the fighters instead of having them on his tail. The twist was so sudden that it seemed like the ship had been in the same spot while doing it. Luke had just placed all the power on the engines and the brakes, and they had turned them on at the same time, creating that surprise effect. The X-Wing´s lasers destroyed two fighters that were chasing him and, immediately and before the other two that were trying to take him from both sides had time to fire, he made a loop upwards, dodging the attack. With no target to hit, the TIE´s lasers hit their own partners, since they had fired form opposite sides, and they destroyed each other.

Mara´s jaw dropped for a second… Everything happened in just an instant, that boy managed to turn the tables form not having a chance at all to have everything on his favor with an incredible move. There was only another person Mara had seen doing such moves, and that was Darth Vader. Luke was at least as good as him… If not better.

A blaster that passed very close to her wing made her come back to reality and remind her that she actually had four fighters to deal with. She was distracted for too long looking at her leader and now the TIEs had her surrounded. Two on the front and to on the back… While other two were on her sides "Shit…" she suddenly turned the ship around and redirected the energy to the tail´s shields just in time, since she got some hits on the back from the TIEs. The Shields went down to forty percent, but at least the ship wasn´t damaged.

Mara shot and managed to get rid of one, but the situation was still not good… Until suddenly one of the Tie´s he had in front of her and another one on her side exploded "Be careful, Rogue two, the TIEs are faster than us and they manage to get us surrounded easily if we let them." She heard luke say on the coms, while he got another of the TIEs to follow him while he escaped…

How the hell did he manage to appear all of sudden, make two sharp shots and then still keep maneuvering to dodge the his following TIE´s shots? Mara decided she would need ot ask him about it later "Thank you, Leader…"

Once she managed to destroy all of the TIE´s chasing her she saw two TIE´s flying straight towards Luke, but this time they were using the blind spot placed just a little above of the craft´s tail.

"Dammit!" they heard the young man on the open channel "I have two on my tail! I can´t see them!" But even before he finished talking Mara had crossed paths with him to be in front of the TIEs and obliterated them.

"Now we are even, leader" she said with a proud tone.

"You still owe me one from the day we met, two." He answered back. Mara couldn´t help but smirk at that, but then realized that she had just saved Luke Skywalker´s life… The Empire´s worst enemy, and she had destroyed two Imperial fighters to do so… She had reacted completely on instinct as soon as she saw the TIEs about to shot him down the only thing she could think about was saving him…. Well it was obvious that it was what she had thought before shipping… EH was the Emperor´s great desire, and she couldn´t allow himt o die before he bowed to Palpatine.

"Hey guys! Don´t you get all the fun!" it was Zev the one talking on the coms now, who was already coming back with Tycho, Hobbie and Kit. The four fighters launched an attack run that broke completely the Imperials´ formation.

"You are late, Grandpa!" Wes laughed.

"I wanted to let you have a little fun, Kiddo!" the veteran shot back as the Rogues finally ended the Imperial presence. Mara couldn´t really believe what jus happened, that group of pilots was very good, four of them were able to resist to thirty TIEs and as soon as more had arrived the Imperials had been outmatched. It was worth of flattery, without a doubt.

After a few minutes the shuttle finally took land and the prisoners, including Wedge, got on board while the rebel fighters patrolled around it, and they escorted the shuttle out of the system.

"This is Rogue Leader, Mission accomplished. No casualties. We are heading to the base now."

"Negative, Rogue Leader" all of them were a little shocked at hearing Mon Mothma herself on the coms "You and your team are going to be moved and will be in charge of the protection of the new ground base. I am sending you now Echo base´s coordenates. You will meet your supervisors there."

"Copy that, Home One, we are on route" Luke announced before the eight X-Wings and the rebel shuttle made the jump to the hyperspace.

 **And that´s it! If I am gonna be honest I have thought on introducing Hoth in this chapter, but my original Idea was not to include the conversation with Mon Mothma, but a reader from the Spanish version suggested it and I thought it was a good idea. So if you guys have a good idea please share and if I like it I might include it xD**

 **Anyway, next chapter we will definitely start with The Empire Strikes Back from the start, so be a little more patient.**

 **I am a little worried about my space battles, I am not comfortable writing them and I still think they are not good, so please tell me how to do it and how to make the better, or if you think they are good as they are. I would appreciate it a lot xD**

 **Well, I think I don't have anything else to say, IT is always a pleasure to write for you guys and you know any opinion, suggestion or idea is more than welcome. See you guys next chapter, don´t forget to review , be good and may the force be with you : P**

 **Bueno, pues nada más que decir, siempre es un placer escribir para vosotros y ya sabéis que cualquier sugerencia, opinión o crítica constructiva son bien recibidas. De modo que nos vemos en el siguiente capítulo, no olvidéis comentar, sed buenos y que la fuerza os acompañe :P**


	8. Echo Base

**Well, here I am with a new chapter of this story. I am so sorry about the delay, I have not abandoned it but honestly It´s so hard to translate it from Spanish once I have already written it once. When I have the urge and the muse to write this story I rather try and advance the actual plot than rewrite what I have already done, you know?**

 **Anyway, I will post the translation, step by step and I hope you guys like it. Finally we get into the films, and I do it with the longest chapter I have ever written in any fanfic, so enjoy it. I wanna thank you all for favorited an follow my story, and specially those ones who took your time leaving a review, it means a lot to me and it really pushed me to keep writing.**

 **Gest: Well thank you. I am glad you like the story and thanks for understanding :)**

 **MrSergo15: Thanks, glad you liked them, I think it´s one of my weak points.**

 **Anyway, with any further delay, let´s hit chapter 8.**

Echo Base

 _Hoth system_

Weather wasn´t good, even though that wasn´t surprising at all, it had been pretty much the same all day long since Rogue Squadron was sent to that Ice cube-like planet three months ago. Luke had to admit that it was a very safe place, no one in his right mind would think about hiding a secret military base in such an inhospitable place, and considering it was apparently lifeless, it was a good idea. However, Darth Vader seemed completely obsessed with finding them, so it was plausible that the Sith Lord would look under every single rock in the whole galaxy, known and unknown, to make them go out of their hidden place. They made him look like an idiot by blowing up the Death Star and eluding him for months, after all.

It was his turn to patrol, it wasn´t the most glamorous job. Since the rebels hadn´t been able to adapt the T-47 snowspeeders to the cold climatic now they had to train native Tauntauns so they could use them as rides. The smell was quite unpleasant but, to be honest, that was the less of their problems.

It wouldn´t take the young Jedi long to hit his last checking point. He madly wanted to go back to base, during those past three months Mara and him had been spending so much time together and it really seemed like the redhead was opening herself up to him. They could just sit there and talk about everything and anything for hours, and they seemed like minutes. Han wouldn´t shut up about it, Leia wouldn´t shut up about it, the Rogues wouldn´t shut up about it… And now even Luke himself had to admit it, he couldn't deny it anymore, he was in love with Mara Jade. The main problem was that he hadn´t grown the courage to tell her about how he felt. He was almost certain that she shared his feelings, or that was what his friends kept telling him basing on their professional opinions and the way they said she looked at him, some gestures, words, how she seemed to constantly look for him, the often they trained together… But Luke wasn´t sure at all, those standards could be taken in count with every other girl, but Mara wasn´t any other girl, she was different to any other girl he had met before.

Lost in his thoughts he jumped back to reality when a small meteor crashed down a few meters away from him. The rebel boy frowned lightly, it wasn´t odd, but not usual either, so he took out his micro-binoculars to take a look.

Not that he could see anything with all that snow and the raging storm anyways, if he really wanted to know what it was he would need to take a closer look. He sighed and cleaned his wrist com. from snow "Echo three to Echo seven… Han, old buddy, you read me?"

"Loud and clear, kid. What´s up?"

"Well, I finished my circle. I don't pick up any life readings."

"There isn´t enough life in this Ice Cube to fill a space cruiser" answered Han "the sensors are in place, I´m going back."

Luke couldn´t help but smirk at that comment "right, I´ll see you shortly. There is a meteorite that hit the ground here, I´m gonna check it out, won´t take long."

The coms went off and just when he was going to keep going, Skywalker´s mount started to growl, visibly disturbed.

"Steady!" said the horseman, caressing the animal so she would calm down "Hey, steady girl. What´s the matter? You smell something?"

The tauntaun couldn´t even respond, even though Luke didn´t expect her to, after all. A creature, larger than a bear, with sharp fangs and two big horns coming out from both sides of his head and completely covered in white fur appeared ut of nowhere.

IT was a Wampa, the rebels had detected activity of those predator creatures in the base´s surroundings, but never this close to the perimeter they moved on. Luke tried to reach his lightsaber, but the monster took the distracter boy with a hard hit of his claw, so he could then unleash his rage on the desperately moaning tauntaun. Then everything went black for Luke.

 _Echo Base_

The base high command was at high activity, just like always. Princess Leia and General Rieekan were the highest ranked officials there and they were responsible for the base. They took patrol reports non-stop and they had to supervise that the sensors were placed in the right places. Luckily, they had been able to build a strong enough shield generator to resist any kind of planetary bombing, so it was the safest place they could get.

Han didn´t like that mood too much, not that he wasn´t able to fit in any kind of place, but all that was too formal for him, and he wasn´t sure about how to feel around Leia either. The news he was going to deliver to her weren´t ones she would take smoothly, after all.

First thing the smuggler did was approach Rieekan so he could deliver his report "No life signs out there, General. The sensors are in place, you´ll know if anything comes around."

"Commander Skywalker reported in yet?" asked the high commander.

"No, he is checking a meteorite that hit near."

Rieekan sighed lightly "With all the meteorite activity in this system it´s gonna be difficult to spot approaching ships…"

"General, I gotta leave, I can´t stay anymore." Said the Corellian without even blinking, the general looked at him, but didn´t ask anything about it.

"I´m sorry to hear that."

"Well, there is a price on my head, if I don´t pay off Jabba the Hutt I´m a dead man."

"A death mark is not an easy thing to live with" smiled Rieekan as he offered his hand for Han to shake "you are a good fighter, Solo, I hate to lose you."

"Thank you, general."

At firs, he thought he could just leave, but when he spotted princess Leia there, listening to their conversation even though she wasn´t looking at them, he couldn't help himself. She turned around to look at him as well and Han sighed "Well, your highness, I guess this is it."

"That´s right." That was all the answer he managed to get out of her, so the smuggler decided to risk to push things a little further.

"Don´t get all mushy on me, so long, princess."

Apparently his plan worked, since as soon as he walked out of high command she chased him "Han!" he turned around when he heard her call him out.

"Yes, your highnesses."

"I thought you´d decided to stay" she said. And he had, but that was before that conversation with Luke. He hated to admit it but the kid was right, he was too attached to Leia all right so the best was to put some distance between them until it wasn´t a death mark on his head. But he wasn´t going to admit that, so he just followed with the first excuse that came to his mind.

"Well, the bounty hunter we run into in Ord Mantell changed my mind." That wasn´t a lie, not completely at least. The first time he went to Rod Mantell he ran into that droid bounty hunter who delayed him almost for two days, those kind of things could happen often, and he didn´t want them to happen if Leia was on the Falcon.

"Han, we need you" that wasn´t what he was expecting at all, but well, it wouldn't hurt to play a little more.

"We need?"

"Yes"

"Well, what about you need?" he wasn´t too sure why he was doing that, maybe he just wanted to force two possibilities. One: get a confession. Or two: make her angry enough so she would want him out of the base.

"I need?" answered Leia. The princess didn´t know what that guy was playing to, sometimes seemed like they both were very close and other times it was just completely annoying to be near him "I don´t know what you´re talking about."

Han smiled proudly and made a gesture with his hand, before resuming his way "probably do." But the princess wasn´t going to accept defeat that easily.

"And what precisely am I supposed to know?"

"Ah, C´mon!" the Corellian wasn´t stopping, but she was able to keep paths with him "you want me to stay because f how you feel about me!"

"Yes! You are a great help to us! A natural leader!"

"No!" he said, turning around to face her and pointing at her with an accusing finger "that´s not it!" seeing that she wasn´t talking he decided to push "C´mon…" and when he saw she was speechless for a moment he decided to just take it as a confirmation "Aaaahhh… C´mon!" However, Leia reacted in that moment.

"You are imagining things." She couldn't show any weakness or seem vulnerable in anyway. She didn´t only have the responsibility of leading the Rebel Alliance, but also that idiot was about to leave. Did he really expect for her to give him a confession right there so she could be one more of his achievements? Well he could sit and wait.

"Am I? Then why are you following me?" asked the Corellian with a clear innuendo "afreaid a was going to live without giving you a goodbye kiss?"

"I would rather kiss a wookie!" the princess had boiling anger in her voice, so Han finally got angry and ended the conversation.

"I can arrange that! You could use a good kiss!" he said before leaving, leaving ELia standing there, completely confused about what had just happened.

….

A few hours after that scene took place, Han was still in a bad mood. He wasn´t focused on what he was doing as him and Chewbacca worked on repairs for the Falcon, and the Wookie was starting to get annoyed. Luckily, or unluckily, a new distraction arrived. C-3PO showed up with his static walks to get his attention.

"Excuse me sir. Might I have a word with you, please?"

"What do you want?"

"It´s princess Leia, sir. She´s been trying to get you on the communicator." What he needed now, probably she just wanted to yell at him or whatever.

"I turned it off, I don´t wanna talk to her." Even though eh didn´t have an expression, the surprise on the protocol droid were pretty clear.

"Oh… Well… Princess Leia is wondering about Master Luke. He hasn´t come back in, she doesn´t know where he is."

"I don´t know where he is" replied Han, angrily.

"Nobody knows where he is." That statement made The corellian´s alarms to turn on. Luke wasn´t the vanishing kind of guy… Even though he could think about a place where he might be, but he would have probably checked in regardless.

"What do you mean nobody knows?!" the droid said something but he didn´t listen, while he walked towards the man in charge of the checking in that hangar "Deck officer! Deck officer! Do you know where commander Skywalker is?"

"I haven´t seen him… It´s possible he came in through the South entrance."

"It´s possible?!" Han was a little shocked about this guy´s incompetence "Why don´t you go find out? It´s getting dark out there." The moment the officer disappeared the Captain started to walk fast towards the quarters. It wasn´t like the kid to do it, but if he, by any chance, had decided to worry everyone so he could spend time with his all lovey dovey redhead, he wasn´t going to run away from a good ass kicking.

….

They had been three months already in that iced planet, not that Mara actually minded much, she was used to spend time in extreme or unpleasant places while she followed a target.

However, something n particular made that locking the worst and the best at the same time… Luke damned Skywalker.

That young man had managed to drag out of her parts that she had been too long hiding. During her missions never, ever, got emotionally attached with anyone, and she was managing to do it in this one too with every single one of the rebels, with the exception of her primary target. She was conquering him, or even better, she had already conquered him. She ha him literally eating from the palm of her hand, but now she had to wait new orders from the emperor. Meanwhile, she had ot stay there and maintain her cover for who know how long, and that was a problem, because she was starting to appreciate Skywalker.

The only good thing Mara could see on this, seeing how happy and optimistic Luke was in that environment, was to know that Palpatine wanted him alive to turn him over to the Dakr Side. Once he was one of the emperor´s acolytes like Vader, they might not have much time to see each other, but they would be on the same side, and truth to be told, Mara didn´t want ot admit that it would be a shame to stop talking to that boy.

She was meditating. It had been two hours since something odd happened, she had stopped sensing Luke´s presence at the bottom of her mind, and that worried her. Rephrasing, it bugged her, not that she cared about him that way at all, but seeing that the boy´s conscience was at such minimum activity to not sense him was weird, to say at least.

The redhead didn´t like to meditate and she hadn´t done it in years. But that day she decided to do it and was trying to check and scan every inch of her surroundings, projecting her mind to try and pick up any kind of force sensitive presence, but it was useless.

She bit her lower lip. Where the hell was he? Unconscious? Dead? AS soon as that thought crossed her mind she couldn´t take it anymore and stood up on the frozen ground.

"Dammit!" she cursed herself. That mission was affecting her too much, only the fact of picturing Skywalker laying unconscious on hoth´s snow, slowly freezing ot death, made her body shiver and gave her the urge to just go out and look for him herself. But she couldn't just let the panic do the work.

She wasn´t able to let her thoughts fly too much more since in that moment someone knocked her door. Mara looked at the entrance of her room and juts said "Come in."

When Han stepped inside she couldn't hide her disappointment, she did have a little hope of it being Luke even though she would have probably felt his presence.

"Solo, I can see you finally finished the patrol…" she greeted "What can I do for you?" They did get along pretty well, in fact, when they were together they joked often since their personalities were alike. But she knew Han suspected her and that he didn´t like very much the fact of Luke falling head over heels for her so quickly, even though it seemed that he had softened a little with time.

"Red…" with her greeting Han already knew he wouldn't find Luke there. He would have really been angry if the kid would have skipped the checking just to spend time with his love, but now he realized he would have preferred that to the other possibilities. "I guess you haven´t seen Luke."

That was all the information Mara needed "he didn´t come back with you?" she asked, worry being clear in her voice.

"No, he stayed to check on a meteorite that hit nearby."

"It´s getting dark, Han!" she said "He wont survive out there when they close the gates!"

The smuggler closed his eyes, but he knew it was true, so he just nodded and turned around. Mara, of course, followed him. She didn't know exactly where he was going but she did know one thing, she wasn´t going to let Skywalker freeze to death.

A soldier approached Han while walked "Sir, commander Skywalker hasn´t come in through the south entrance." He informed, but it was Mara who answered.

"Are the Speeders ready?"

"No, Ma´am. We are having some trouble adapting them to the cold."

"We´ll have to go out on Tauntauns." Said Han then.

"But sir, the temperature is dropping too rapidly." It didn´t matter how hard anyone tried to make Han change his mind, he had already made his decision and walked towards the Tauntauns´ stable.

"That´s right, and my friend is out in it." The moment he sat down in the fuzzy animal, he could see how Mara had already taken a fur coat and some goggles, and was waiting for him on her own ride "What are you doing?"

"I´m coming with you." She said, as it was completely obvious.

"What? No way."

"Look, Solo. Luke matters to me as much as he does to you, if not more" she didn't really have to lie on that one, even though the tone she used could really seem like a girl in love, more than anything. She had to keep her cover and, as an extra, make sure that Solo cut the crap with those suspects on her "so I am coming with you, no discussion there."

The Corellian just looked at her and shrugged, but the animals´ keeper tried once again to stop them "Your Tauntaun will freeze before you hit the first Marker!"

"Then I´ll see you in hell… Ha!"

…..

Luke slowly opened his eyes and it took him a moment to actually know where he was. In fact, it really seemed like the world was upside down. He felt dizzy and like he was about to puke, and his entire body ached. Soon he realized that it was him the one who was upside down in a frozen cave and he remembered the Wampa attack, just as soon as he thought about the creature he started hearing growls and roars and clear sounds of someone eating something. He wasn´t going to bet but he was pretty sure that the beast was having his tauntaun for dinner.

He had to get out of there, and he had to do it fast if he didn´t want to end up as a snack from a native Hoth Bear. Such a great ending for the rebellion´s Hero…

The first thing he tried was to pull his feet out of the ice he was trapped on in the ceiling, but it was no use.

He looked around, trying to spot something that could help him or he could use as lever, maybe a bone. But he found something much better instead.

His lightsaber was stuck in the snow, just under his head; probably he had just dropped it while he was hanging there, because he highly doubted a beast like the wampa took the time to disarm him. Such a Jedi he was, that he didn´t even realize his weapon wasn´t on his belt.

First he tried to reach it, but he might as well saved the effort, it was pretty clear that the distance was too much, so he tried one last resource.

His trainings with the force were gong a little better, now he could even lift some small objects like glasses or plates. However, he had never tried with his lightsaber. Which, now that he thought about it, was stupid, if he really needed to use the force in combat it would be to move his weapon, not a pen.

He closed his eyes and focused, trying to feel the force around him and picturing the weapon flying towards his hand.

…..

Mara raised her head when Luke´s presence went on once again in her mind. He was alive and he was using the force, that could only mean he was in immediate danger.

"This way!" she announced, making her tauntaun twist and go faster. Han looked at her, confused.

"The scan doesn´t show anything… How do you know?" she didn´t even look at him when she replied.

"Feminine intuition… C´mon!" The Corellian sighed, but that was s good as any direction, so he followed her.

…...

As soon as he felt his sword touch his hand Luke didn't waste any time activating it. With a clean cut he set himself free and fell to the ground, getting immediately up. The Wampa, hearing his escape attempts, had approached and was now into him, but Luke swung the lightsaber and the beast´s arm fell on the snow.

The rebel started to run, he wasn´t going to stay and see his captor´s fate. He wasn´t going to kill him, he knew he only attacked him y instinct, but he wasn´t going to feel bad about it dying either since he had defended himself for the same reason, survival instinct.

After a few meters he realized his mistake. The weather in Hoth was worst than ever, she should have ended the Wampa and stayed in the cave, protected. It didn´t take long for him to fall down in the snow and roll down a cliff. That was it. That was the end all right. HE didn´t have the strength to move and he was going to freeze to death. His last thoughts were for Mara, but just when he was about to lose his consciousness, a blue and ghostly figure appeared in front of him, thought he could barely see him because of the storm.

"Luke…" the figure spoke, with a deep dark voice, it seemed like it was coming from far away, and then it took Obi-Wan´s shape "Luke!"

"Ben?" young Skywalker thought he was hallucinating for a moment, but the figure continued.

"You will go to the Dagobah system"

"Dagobah system?"

"There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi master who instructed me."

"Ben…" the boy tried to reach his old master, but he was too weak "Ben" the effort was too much for Luke, who could barely keep his eyes open and finally fell unconscious, but he could barely see other two figures approaching through the storm.

…

"There he is!" Yelled Mara "I told you it was this way!" as soona s they were close enough, they jumped off their mounts.

"Don´t do this Luke!" said Han, turning his friend around "C´mon! Give me a sign here!"

"He´s got pulse" said the redhead "we need to increase his temperature before he freezes to death…"

They heard some moans and they turned around just to see that their rides were now lying on the snow.

"Alright, great… Now we have to find a way to make sure Luke or us don't die before they come looking for us tomorrow" observed the girl.

Han looked at her "I think you are the right one for that, basic survival. You keep him warm while I build a shelter."

She blinked a few times and was about ot argue, but it was actually a good idea "Alright…" she groaned her agreement. She laid on top of Luke, trying to make as much physical contact as possible. She rubbed her cheek with his and she stayed that way while the Corellian started gathering Ice blocks and snow for their shelter.

2This isn´t working!" she roared "the best is skin to skin contact for this! But I am not gonna get naked on Hoth!"

"And if it wasn´t another planet you would get naked with Luke all right?" asked Han with a smirk on his face, making Mara blush.

"Just shut your mouth! And think something!"

"Alright, alright… Easy…" he said, and started looking between Luke´s clothes untl he got his sword "here it is…"

"What are you planning to do with that?"

"Well" he answered, while he cut the tauntaun´s belly "C´mon… Hang on there. This might smell bad, Kid, but it would keep you warm, until we put a shelter up."

"Ugh… Mara complained, "I thought this smelled bad… On the outside."

As soon as they settled young Skywalker inside the animal, they started to work, it was going to be a long cold night.

 **And this is it for now. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter xD I know it´s not something new and that I haven´t changed a lot apart from Mara´s inclusion, but I wanted something more or less easy and simple for my first contact with the film.**

 **I am not sure if it will take me one or two chapters to get to the battle of Hoth, but it will happen soon, I guess we can say the real deal starts now, right?**

 **Anyways I remind you guys that any kind of opinions, constructive critics or ideas are most welcome, I want you to be part of this story. I will see you next chapter, don´t forget to review, be good and may the Force be with you.**


	9. When the acting ends

**I am back with a new chapter for this story. I know it takes me a long time to update but the translation goes slowly, please apologize for that.**

 **I want to announce that I found a new beta reader, who I am most grateful for reviewing my chapter because I have noticed my spelling and Grammar mistakes across the previous chapters. I will slowly update and edit them to make them more legible, so there is that.**

 **Anyway, back to Hoth to continue with the film, let´s see how it goes. I want to thank all the people who have followed and favorited me, and special thanks to those who take their time to comment**

 **MerSergo15: Welp, I am afraid you will have to wait just a little bit longer xD**

 **Anyways, with no further delay, let´s get down to business.**

When the Acting Ends

 _Echo Base – Hospital_

Luke slowly opened his eyes. He actually felt good. The last thing he had in his mind before he lost consciousness in the snow was that he had had a vision. Luckily, the message Ben had given him was perfectly stored in his mind. He would go to the Dagobah system as soon as he could, it had been a while since Obi-Wan had died and the young man felt like he was not the Jedi he was supposed to be. He honestly couldn't see a way to become one. But now, with a great Jedi master training him, and not just any master, but the one who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi no less, he was certain of getting the strength and power he needed to do what everyone expected him to do, beat Vader and avenge his father.

When the boy started to become aware of his surroundings, he realized he was laying in a comfortable bed with white sheets and recognized the familiar surroundings of the hospital right away.

"Finally back to the living world?" a female voice asked next to him, "For real, Skywalker, I have no idea how you manage to come out alive of this kind of situations… most mortals couldn't even dream about it."

He smiled a little when he saw Mara Jade's face, who was sitting next to his bed. He was actually surprised that the medical droid allowed her to stay; but honestly, when she made up her mind about something there was no way to talk her out of it.

"Truth be told… I am not sure either. I thought I was done out there." He answered, and the girl chuckled.

"And you would have if Solo and I hadn't arrived when we did." She proudly asserted. "I guess that makes us even, Commander.

"Yup seems so, Lieutenant...thank you."

Mara sighed lightly and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't you ever do something like that again, alright?" she asked, "I don't wanna go around saving your life all the time. You are supposed to be the Jedi hero."

Luke couldn't help but chuckle sadly, and he shrugged, "Such a great Jedi I am… I can't even defend myself from a Wampa.

"Pfft… you are too hard on yourself, I don't think there are many people who would be able to survive those beasts, and you did. That's amazing."

"Thank you, Mara. And thanks for going after me, you could have died as well."

"You would have done the exact same thing for me, farmboy." The redhead answered, trying to take away importance from the matter at hand, even trying to sound like she was joking, but Luke took her hand with his and stared directly into her emerald eyes.

"Without even hesitating?" She gulped for a moment. What the hell?

Was he saying that he would go on a suicide mission for her? But then she understood, her job was to seduce him, and she had succeeded. Luke most likely had fallen completely for her right now… even though she didn´t dislike that scenario, for some reason.

She knocked those thoughts right out of her mind. Of course, she liked that scenario! It was her goal! For some reason, she had made Skywalker fall in love with her. The Emperor made it clear that she was the key to his plans in turning Luke to the dark side, so she was happy because it was a job well-done.

However, when she realized what was happening, she saw Luke's face dangerously close to hers. He had to sit on the bed, still with their hands locked, and she was getting closer and closer. But for some reason, Mara couldn't find strength, or motive, to move out of the way, until something snapped her back to reality.

"Luke, stop… Someone is coming!"

The door then opened and the young man lay back on the bed but remained still.

"Master Luke, sir. It´s so good to see you fully functional again." Announced C3-PO as he came in, followed by his astromech companion "R-2 expresses his relief, also"

Han and Chewbacca arrived after them, and the Corellian asked with a smile on his face "How're you feeling, Kid? You don't look so bad to me" next to him, the Wookiee grunted with worry. "You look strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark."

Luke chuckled lightly at that comment. "Thanks to both of you," he said, pointing at Han and Mara with his head. However, the smuggler couldn´t let that chance of gloating pass away, so he raised two fingers.

"That´s two you owe me, junior!" In kind of an arrogant way, Han turned around and looked at Leia, who had just arrived at the medlab as well. "Well your worship, it looks like you have managed to keep me around a little longer."

The princess couldn't help a bit of humor, but tiredness showed in her voice when she replied, "I had nothing to do with it. General Rieekan believes it's dangerous for any ships to leave the system before we activate the energy field."

"That´s a good story," Han stated. Behind him, Luke and Mara looked at each other. It was obvious that he was only doing this to try and pick on the rebel leader. And it seemed like he was actually going to be getting away with it. "I just think you can´t bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out your sight."

The redhead couldn't help but chuckle while Leia frowned."I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain" when she heard Chewbacca laugh after that comment, Han turned around to face his partner with an annoyed look.

"Laugh it up, fuzz ball…" he countered and, trying to save his dignity, he walked towards the princess to hug her shoulders with his arm. "But you didn't see us alone in the South Passage. She expressed her true feelings for me."That was it for the orphan from Alderaan. She was already confused with her own feelings towards him, and she was also angry for him being so stubborn about leaving, and she couldn't stand it anymore.

"WHAT?!" she shouted, barely holding her anger, while the target of her rampage got away to avoid being hit or something. "Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking… Nerf Herder!"

That last insult actually was a little hurting for Han to hear from the princess´ mouth, so Han turned around, shocked. "Who´s scruffy-looking?" but he looked pretty confident about his victory, so he got close to look and whisper, though he did it loud enough so the entire room could hear him. "Must have hit really closely to the mark to make her riled up like that, huh, Kid?"

Mara rolled her eyes, with a fun smile on her lips. It was impossible to deny that there was something between those two. They acted like they were constantly at each other´s throats because they both had too much pride. However, what she didn't expect was what the female part of this tandem and what Leia was going to do next. She nodded defiantly, walking and standing next to Luke, and next to Han as well. "Well, I guess you don't know everything about women yet." She said, and with that, she grabbed both sides of Luke's face and passionately kissed him on the lips.

With that, Luke opened his eyes in shock, Han crossed his arms as he was at a loss for words. Mara just stared at them from where she was sitting. When they finally broke the kiss, the princess just left without a word, but not before giving the smuggler a proud look.

At that moment, Mara started to have mixed emotions. She didn't care who that idiot decided to kiss. Yeah, it was her job to seduce him, and she was managing to do it, but that didn't mean he couldn't be attracted to other women. However, when the right time arrived he should only end up with her. Those were the feelings her head was telling her she should have. But her gut said otherwise, she felt furious. Just a few moments ago Luke was about to kiss her… And now, out of nowhere, the princess basically stole that kiss. That made her angry and she knew it made no sense at all. She wasn't a jealous woman, never had been. Hell, she had used her body and beauty to drag men in… even though she had never gone all way to the finish, but she was the first one to flirt. Dammit! She shouldn't even be looking for reasons not to be jealous! She wasn't! And that was it! She didn't care about what Skywalker did with girls!

"Excuse me," she suddenly said. "I hope you get better soon, Commander."

And with that she left the room, leaving the poor Jedi wannabe not knowing what to say "Mara!" But by the moment he had reacted the redhead was already far away from there. Han patted his shoulder with an annoyed look.

"You know? This is going to get you in trouble, kid." Luke nodded with a sigh.

"I know… she is too proud to admit it bothered her." He didn't know why, but he was pretty sure that the redhead did not like that kiss at all, it might be because the force enhanced his empathy towards her, just like it did with Leia.

"Oh wow… you seem confident, kid, I like that."

"I dunno… I guess everything is a little more clear, Han." Luke answered to his friend. But when the Corellian was about to talk, a voice came out of the speakers, asking for the presence of the leaders in the command room.

Han sighed, he would go sneak around and see what he could find out and maybe get his clearance to leave. "Take it easy, kid," he said before leaving. Luke just smiled and decided to lay down on the bed again, closing his eyes to try and meditate.

As soon as his mind started drifting away, he just couldn't manage to focus. He couldn't help but think about what had just happened. Would it be true? Would that kiss Leia gave him, give him trouble with Mara? There was absolutely nothing between him and the princess. Of course, he had a crush on her. It was true… but just as Han stated it was just because of the heat of the moment and the whole rescue thing. However, what he felt for Mara he wasn't completely sure of it, for some reason.

He tried to relax, but he wasn't able to take his thoughts away from the redhead. Just before they got interrupted he had tried to kiss her. And he would have, because for a moment he was determined, and it didn't seem like the redhead was trying to avoid it or turn away…

The boy sighed and found himself starting to fall asleep instead of the planned meditation. While he closed his eyes, he started thinking about what could have happened if things had gone on without interruptions.

….

Mara growled in annoyance as she sat down on her bed, she didn't even know why it even bothered her. It was pretty obvious that Skywalker was completely charmed by her; the kiss Organa gave him was exclusively to make that Solo jerk jealous. In fact, Luke didn't even react at all. Her brain was telling her that it was unimportant. It was okay because she knew the boy would fall into her arms. In the end, she would achieve her goal and bring him before the Emperor so he could turn him to the Dark Side. After that, if she kept having urges towards the blonde farmboy, then she would make sure she made things clear to him because she was pretty sure he was not going to complain about it.

It was curious, though, she had always used her body and beauty to try and drag men to do whatever she wanted. Actually, she was doing the exact same thing with Skywalker, truth to be told. However, if the best scenario came to be, she would do it just for her own pleasure; she would go all the way to the end if given the chance.

She finally managed to cool herself down and decided to lay in bed for a moment, there wasn't too much to do on that base. Pretty much everything didn't work due to the extreme cold and they had focused on fixing the most important things. In fact, the speeders had been operative only a few hours ago and their first mission with the ships had been to go and retrieve Luke, Han and herself.

She tried to relax but she couldn't since almost immediately she felt a presence calling for her in her mind.

"Mara…" the Emperor´s voice stated with all those mixed feelings of anger, hate and the overwhelming power hit her hard. She even had to sit down, breathing heavily. For some reason, her master's dark presence caused a negative effect on her, probably because she had gotten too used to Luke's bright and pure force signature… but she managed to control herself, she didn't want her master to see any of that.

"Master," she said. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your contact?"

"I just wanted to know how you were doing, my child, and if you had any progress with your assignment."

"I am fine, my master, the rebels don't suspect a thing." Mara gulped. "Luke Skywalker has developed deep feelings for me, just as you planned, I achieved my goal of seducing him."

"Good, good… You did a great job, my hand." The redhead was even able to see how her master's disfigured face made a satisfying gesture. "That will be vital for our plans… I know Vader is about to find a way to drag Skywalker to us, but his bonding with you will be what ultimately makes him turn his back on the light side…"

Mara couldn't help but wonder about it, would Skywalker really love her enough to leave the Rebellion? She knew that they had developed a strong bond between them, but she wouldn't even think about leaving the Empire if he asked for it, so she doubted the boy would act differently.

"Master… If you allow me… I am unsure if Skywalker´s feelings, for me, would be enough to make him leave the rebellion with me."

"Oh, sweet child, don't you worry about it…" answered the Sith Lord in a comforting voice "Skywalker will join us and you will be a big part of it. I have foreseen everything; you must trust me."

"Of course, master." The girl bit her lower lip for a moment, trying to gather the courage to ask what she wanted. "I have two requests for you, Master if you allow me…"

"Of course, of course, my child...what´s bothering you?"

"I was wondering… how much longer is my mission with the rebels going to last. It's not pleasant at all and the longer I am here the risk of blowing my cover increases."

"That´s understandable, but you must not worry. I trust you to be skilled enough to maintain your cover," Palpatine explained. "and I have the feeling that it won't be long until the young Jedi is kneeling before me. Just hold on a little longer, my hand… what was your second request?"

"Well, my lord… I was thinking, once Skywalker is on our side, if you allow it, I would like to keep in touch with him. I have come to realize a relationship with him is beneficial to me." She was quiet for a moment. She wished she was able to know what her master was thinking, but that channel wasn't open to both sides. The Emperor made sure, he could see everything in the girl's head he wanted, but she would never be able to access his thoughts. After a few moments, the Sith spoke again in her mind.

"I am happy for you, my child. I know Skywalker will be a great asset for us. Of course… as long as it is what you both desire, I would never try and interfere with your happiness."

Mara smiled at that statement, she couldn't help it. If Luke finally allied himself with the empire then they would be able to talk without pressure. Who knew? Maybe she could even ask him to help her with the force. "Thank you, my master." this time the girl spoke out loud, knowing the Emperor would hear her.

The connection ended, and she lay down on the bed once again. The feeling of that contact leaving her was odd, to say the least. She had gotten used to the light presence of Luke and knew it was hard for her to not see the Emperor as something unpleasant. She didn't like that feeling, she was the Emperor´s Hand, his most loyal servant; he had given her everything she had and made her what she was right now. She couldn't allow herself to think about him as unpleasant, she owed him everything.

Luckily, the chat had taken away some of the worries from her head, if her master had a feeling then it was most likely going to be true. Moreover, he had told her Vader already had a plan to take the young Jedi to Coruscant; so it was possible that she wasn't going to be with the rebellion much longer.

She couldn't think about it for long, though, because someone knocked on her door after just a few minutes. The redhead knew exactly who it was. "Come in."

She sat down to look at the person entering the room. "You seem to feel much better, Commander Skywalker," she said, ironically. "Anyone would say you got a revitalizing treatment."

"Right…" Luke didn't seem happy at all when he spoke. At first, Mara thought it was because of how things were between them right now, but she was starting to suspect there was more to it. It wasn't as if Luke would have started apologizing way before.

"Is something wrong?" She asked. The boy just sighed and stared into her eyes.

"The Empire has found us; the evacuation is starting immediately," he explained. "Han and Chewie ran into a probe droid, and most likely it has had all the time it needed to transmit our position."

The redhead thought a little about that piece of information. Would that be the reason why the Emperor seemed so sure about Luke soon being with them? Was that Vader´s plan? Well, it sure seemed like it. If they had already found the rebels it was just a matter of time that the alliance would be crushed. Even with the shield generator, General Veers´ Death Squad would just wipe out any ground defense the rebels could manage to build using the limited resources they had at hand.

"Are you here to inform me about the evacuation?" asked Mara. "Don't worry about it, I will start packing right away."

"No, we are not leaving just yet," informed the commander, with a sad voice. "Rogue Squadron has to try and hold the ground assault with the Snowspeeders until the transports leave."

"That´s insane," she said, as a matter of fact. "It´s obvious they will send the Death Squad to deal with this, and that means we will have to face AT-ATs. It´s impossible for the Snowspeeders to be able to stop them."

"I am well aware… but it is better for them to focus on us so they don't destroy the shield generator. If that happens we won't be able to complete the evacuation. The alliance's future depends on this one, Mara."

"So we are bait for the Empire, basically…" The girl smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm in, Skywalker."

This time he genuinely smiled, even though he already expected that reaction. In the little time, he had known her, Mara had always been willing to risk her life in any kind of mission, and he didn't think that was going to be an exception.

"There are high chances of us not coming back this time," said the Jedi while he got closer to her. "It´s something we would need to come to terms with."

"Pffft… you think I am stupid, Skywalker?" she asked. "I know the risks all right, I told you myself that it was insane… but I am going to fly." Not only did she see it as an exciting scenario, but her reputation in the alliance didn't allow her to just sit this one out, or people could suspect. She would manage to survive. It wasn't the worst battle she had fought in. She then realized that, once again, Skywalker was very close to her and she raised an eyebrow. "W-What are you doing, Commander Skywalker?" she couldn't help to notice a little blush in the boy's cheeks and, for a moment, Mara started to hesitate about what was going to happen next.

Luke sighed, locking his blue eyes into her emerald ones. Even if both of them survived the battle, he was planning on going away to Dagobah right away. He hadn't told anyone about it because he knew that everyone, including Mara, would try and talk him out of it. And if she was insistent about it, she would most likely succeed in making him stay, and he knew he had to go. However, he didn't want to risk the fact of not seeing her again.

Very slowly, Luke leaned forward, and the redhead felt like paralyzed for a moment. She knew what was coming. She could see it…

She should turn away. She should offer her cheek. She should stop him or say something… but something was holding her back and she didn't exactly know what it was. She hadn't realized when she saw Leia kiss him that, secretly, she wanted to be the one in the princess' place… but she wasn't mentally ready yet to give a kiss without it being part of a mission… wait a minute… it was part of her mission, wasn't Luke part of a mission? Her job was to seduce him, and she was doing it… It was her objective… her mission…

Too many mixed thoughts were going on in her mind to actually do something, so when she came back to the real world, Luke's lips touched hers.

It wasn't a spectacular kiss, not even a deep one. Their lips lightly touched as she opened her mouth a little, kind of inviting him to deepen it, but he stopped it after a few seconds. That meant the world for Luke, but Mara wasn't sure of anything.

Young Skywalker couldn't believe what had gotten into him. At first, he had just gone to Mara's room to apologize for the whole Leia thing and to inform her about the mission. But when he thought about not seeing her for months, since he had no idea, how much time, his training would take, it simply made him act. There was also the fact that they might not come out alive today.

And he didn't regret it, while he got close to her and seeing that she wasn't moving or trying to move away gave him confidence about it. When their lips touched, he couldn't help but close his eyes.

Mara's lips didn't taste or feel like anything he had read in romantic stories like strawberries or fruit… it was hard to describe. They were soft and warm, as well as a little wet, even more so when she opened her mouth.

He felt her breath mixing with his own for a moment before getting away and opening his eyes.

He felt his cheeks burn like they never did before and he had a very nice feeling in his belly he had never felt. His blue eyes were glued to the green ones of hers. She just stood there, not moving at all, with her mouth slightly open and apparently shocked.

"I ehm…" he started to say.

"Luke…" she replied in a whisper. She should have expected something like that; the boy was in love with her, that was her plan all along after all… but with time she just thought she would have to act first, like always. However, that moment had become something much more complicated than what she had planned at first. And now she wasn't so sure about where the acting ended and the real feelings started "I… I don't know what…"

"I'm sorry…" Luke grabbed the back of her head, a little embarrassed. "I… I just. I just wanted to do it, you know? In case we don't see each other again… I wanted you to know… we'll talk when we see each other next, okay?" And with that, he turned around and started to walk towards the door to leave. Mara just thought about letting him leave just like that, but she just couldn't, she had to say something.

"Luke! Wait!" He turned around then to face her, with his signature optimistic smile.

"Seriously, don't worry about it. Everything is fine. We'll talk about it later, I promise." He assured her, and then he left the room, closing the door behind him and left the redhead standing there to deal with her confused feelings.

 **And that´s it! Tadaaa! First kiss… I guess it is not how most of you thought it would be. Not passionate or intense, but I think it had enough meaning for both of them. I never pictured Luke having a too amazing first kiss if I am going to be honest, more like a casual thing just like how it happened now, please let me know what you think about it xD**

 **And now Luke is leaving to Dagobah! Things are gonna get messy and the all lovey-dovey times are not gonna happen until a few chapters later, I´m afraid… We all know how the story goes on and I am not going to go away from the movie too much, so I guess you can guess what´s going to happen next hehe.**

 **You guys know I appreciate any comment, opinion, suggestion or criticism to make me improve. I´d like to thank my new beta reader for helping me improve my quality in the chapters xD**

 **Welp, nothing else left to say, I don´t know when next chapter will be up until then, don´t forget to review, be good and may the force be with you :P**


	10. The Battle of hoth

**Well, this was a relatively fast update, so I hope you guys are happy about it. Next one might take a little longer cause I will focus on advancing the story in Spanish, but you will get the next one eventually xD**

 **So before I say anything, I dunno If you realized that the rating of this story went down from M to K and I erased the "lemon" warning from the description. That´s because I was planning on doing a sex scene but I changed my mind, I know it would be interesting to explore it with the force bond but after talking to my fanfic counselors and beta readers I just realized there is no place for it here. It doesn´t fit in the story I have planned and, if I do it, it would just be because "It has to be there" and I just don´t want to write like that. I am sorry for the ones who wanted to read it but it just is not the time.**

 **Anyways, I really hope you enjoy this chapter. I think it´s the longest I have written this far and a character I am sure you guys are waiting for finally enters the game, I hope I do it right xD**

 **Also, regarding some people pointing a few mistakes in my work the last chapter I got a new beta. Her fanfiction name is Cutegallifreyan and she is writing a great KOTOR story, go check her out xD**

 **Thank you to all the ones who followed and favorited my story, it means a lot to me. And especially to the ones who took their time to review, that encourages me to keep writing :)**

 **MrSergo15: Yeah, not much longer until we meet Yoda xD**

 **MargsMonday: Well thank you, though I have to say it´s mostly thanks to my recently acquired beta reader xD**

 **Well… Without further delay, let´s get to chapter 10**

The Battle of Hoth

The base was in complete chaos, evacuation alarms rang everywhere while pilots, officers, ground troopers and everyone in the facility ran to reach the transports or their combat positions.

Nothing about the situation was encouraging, it was obvious that they wouldn't be able to hold the Imperial assault for too long since their resources were very limited. Echo base had been a complete failure. They hadn't been able to adapt to the hard weather and even if it was a great hiding place, they were lacking in transports, fighters and ships. That would most likely be a handicap now that they needed to evacuate as fast as they could.

While he ran towards his speeder, Luke mentally repeated the plan. It was plain and simple, two fighters to protect each transport. The Ion cannon would fire a few times to disable any ship that was trying to cut them off. It was risky, no doubt about it. But the young rebel wasn't able to think about a better option because there wasn't much of one in the first place.

He managed to not think about his kiss with Mara, while the battle lasted. He promised her they would talk about it, but unfortunately, that had to be after he returned from Dagobah. He had no idea how long it would take him to finish his Jedi training. It could be days, months or even years. Even though he didn't like that last option at all. He hoped that the Jedi master would allow him to leave Dagobah every once in a while; because a year without seeing Mara was something he didn't think he would be able to accomplish.

"The first transport is away!" the speakers announced, and nearly the entire base cheered about that. They now knew the plan worked, and that was something. "The first transport is away!"

Luke smiled, well, now they might have a chance. However, he cleared his mind of any thoughts as soon as they got to the hangar. Dak was already waiting for him, standing on their snow speeder. Luke had decided the pilots who usually were wingmen would be gunners this time since they didn't have enough ships for everyone to fly. Rogue Squadron had only been given five fighters and there were other groups also getting ready for battle, and it didn't look good.

Dak would go with him. Wes would be Wedge´s gunner, and Kit would be Zev´s, that was for sure. However, it was the other pilots' distribution that gave him the biggest headache. In the end, he decided to promote Tycho to the main pilot, so he wouldn't be Hobbie´s gunner. His spot was filled with Mara, and Kassan would be the recently promoted Alderaanian´s gunner. Everyone was making the last preparations for the battle when Luke arrived, and Dak asked: "Feeling alright, boss?"

"Just like new, Dak, how about you?" the younger pilot smirked significantly.

"Just like new? Can´t say I blame you, boss. Did you come from seeing Mara?" Luke turned around to look at his friend.

"What are you implying, lieutenant Ralter?"

"Oh, nothing" Dak answered, with a big smile "I am just saying that a beautiful lady's company can heal anything. Now let's go, I feel like I could take down the whole empire myself."

Luke just shook his head and smirked at the young pilot's positive attitude "I know what you mean… And both got ready to take off.

….

"Echo station five, Seven. We're on our way" informed Luke via comms, while the Speeders got close to the battle area. General Veers´ squadron, at least seven AT-ATs, walked right towards the shield generator. If they lost it, they would be without energy to maintain the planetary shield and the evacuation would be a complete failure, they would also be the target of a planetary bombing from the space, so they needed to hold them back as much as they could.

The huge ground vehicles weren't fast, especially walking on Snow, but their fire was strong enough to make explosions deadly for any rebel near the impact, even if they were undercover.

Luke wasn't too sure about how they would manage, but he had a pair of ideas "Alright, boys, keep tight now." The leader said.

"Luke, I´ve no approach vector! I´m not set!" Hihis gunner shouted from behind, but the Jedi didn't flinch, that wasn't too important at the moment.

"Steady, Dak," he said. First things first, they needed to do an attack run and see if those vehicles were affected by their blaster fire, he made sure Hobbie was at his wing and he told the plan to the others "Attack pattern Delta, go now!" Hobbie followed him on his wing during the flight "Alright. I'm coming in." Announced Luke. Both speeders made a tight turn and attacked the walkers from above, shooting blasters against them with full strength. After that, they flew under the legs and made a second run before getting away. "Hobbie, you still with me?"

"Here I am, boss."

It wasn't going well for the rebels at all. A few speeders had been blown up from the sky, and the walkers were slaughtering the ground troops, despite their cover, mercilessly. They had also lost a few cannons and turrets. The young rebel started to think that they were not going to get anything good from there.

The rebel fighters turned again, following the leader and attacked trying to cause the walkers as much damage as possible, but the result was exactly the same.

"That armor is too strong for blasters!" Rogue Leader said, even though everyone noticed that by that time. They flew above the AT-AT´s so they could keep themselves out of their fire range. The young farmboy tried coming up with a plan, and he thought about something… It was a bit unorthodox, but it just might work. He was out of ideas. "Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs! It might be our only chance of stopping them!"

While Hobbie followed Luke, Mara couldn't help but be completely shocked in the gunner's seat. That was one of the craziest ideas she had ever heard, and there was no way she could have come up with something similar. Such ancient things like harpoons and tow cables to take down an AT-AT? That boy never stopped surprising her in the weirdest ways she could imagine. And to be honest the redhead thought that it just might work.

Her fighter followed Luke's a few seconds until the leader made his move. "Alright, standby, Dak."

"Luke, we have a malfunction in fire control" warned Dak, with a worried tone. It wasn't too important for the harpoon but if they wanted to fire blasters again it could be a serious problem. "I'll have to cut in the auxiliary."

The pilot shook his head, there would be time to worry about the fire control later. He now needed his gunner completely focused on the task at hand "Just hang on!" He was interrupted by a nearby explosion, a sign of another snowspeeder being blown up from the sky "Hang on, Dak! Get ready to fire that town cable!" The young Jedi flew his fighter against the nearest AT-AT, he kept low to pass between the legs. However, just before he reached the optimum firing range, another walker fired and hit him lightly on the backside of the speeder, which exploded with flames. Dak's scream made Luke worry a lot about him, and the harpoon wasn't shot as planned, so the pilot turned his head "Dak?" He asked, still with the lightest of hopes that his gunner was just unconscious "Dak!"

Still no answer…maybe it was the force, but for some reason, Luke knew that the young man who had been his wingman for over a year; the promising pilot he took under his tutelage, was gone.

But he couldn't think about that. The imperial walkers kept going forward. They were closer and closer to the shield generator and he had to recover or the countless loses the Alliance was having would be in vain. Dak´s death would be all in vain.

He sighed and looked for Wedge in the comms. "Rogue two!"

"Copy, Rogue leader," answered the Corellian.

"Wedge, I lost my gunner. You'll have to make the shot…" He wanted to keep it professional. He didn't want to say that Dak was dead out loud, but Wedge got the message clearly and couldn't help but look over his shoulder. Wes was completely tense, Dak was his best friend after all, but they were Rogues, the Alliance was counting on them and they couldn't fail, so he didn't say anything and focused on what the leader was saying. "I'll cover for you! Steady your harpoon, follow me on the next pass!"

"Coming around, Rogue Leader." Wedge announced. Both Speeders flew above the walker for a new attack run, while Hobbie covered them in Luke's wing.

"Ready, Rogue two," Luke said as they got close to the firing range.

"Activate Harpoon!" ordered the Corellian pilot to his gunner, who punched the trigger almost with rage. The harpoon attached itself to one of the AT-AT´s legs "Good shot, Janson!" Seeing the maneuver's success, Luke and Wedge started to fly around the vehicle's legs, until the leader decided it was enough.

"Cable out! Let it go!"Luke ordered, and Wedge repeated the order to his Gunner.

"De-attach cable!"

"Cable de-attached!" Janson announced. The three Rogue pilots looked as the enormous walker tried to take a step but failed when he tripped with the cable around its legs. It then fell down and crashed into the snow head first. Mara and Hobbie took a shot then and this time, the annoying ground transport was blown up into pieces.

"Woaah! That got him!" Wedge stated in a celebrated tone.

"I saw it, Wedge, good work," Luke congratulated both of them and actually sighed in relief. At least they had a way to take those things down. It was something.

Mara was completely shocked; she had never flown with someone who thought about plans and strategies that fast in combat situations. Skywalker was, without any doubt, a great battle commander. "Hahaha! Take that! You saw it, Mara?" asked Hobbie, while he celebrated their momentary victory.

"It´s great," she answered without a lot of emotion. She was kind of out of it, to be honest. A part of her couldn't believe the Empire's actions on this planet. The rebels didn't stand a chance even with Luke´s strategy, they were literally being slaughtered. They could have blown up the shield generator much earlier without engaging in a ground assault which lead to mass casualties.

"It´s our turn!" her pilot's voice kicked her back to reality "Let´s take down one of those metal dogs!" the Emperor´s hand just nodded and waited for her turn to fire.

Hobbie didn't take long to fly to the optimum position. "Punch it, Mara!" The redhead, obviously, didn't miss the shot, and the harpoon attached perfectly to one of the AT-AT´s legs. Everything went smoothly, Hobbie made four laps around the vehicle and they de-attached the cable. The Walker tripped and fell, just like the first one, and this time Tycho and Kassan got the kill.

"Yeah! We did it! One less to go!" screamed Hobbie.

Luke smiled; at least his Rogues had initiative...even though he wasn't able to take down any of the walkers there was still hope, his pilots were the best of the best after all. "Good job Hobbie, Mara, keep it up.

"No problem, leader. We got this." This time the redhead was the one answering the comms, making Skywalker smile even more. However, he had to do a close twist in the air to get out of the AT-ATs´ firing range, Zev and Kit were next to him, so he decided it was time to go back to action.

"Rogue Three, are you alright?" he called, and Zev answered.

"Yeah, I'm with you Rogue Leader" Luke nodded, it was the veteran pilot's turn to shoot, Wedge was recharging the harpoon for his next attack.

"Push that harpoon, I'll cover for you!" He ordered. He flew low towards two incoming walkers, that were a little farther apart than the first one, which made it more complicated to reach them in time… apart from the two of them firing at the same time and making it more difficult to avoid the blasters "Watch that crossfire, boys!"

"Set for position three," Zev said to the others, so they were able to cover them. "Steady…"

"Stay tight and low!" If their ships ended going up too much the blasters would hit them.

"C´mon, grandpa!" shouted Wes. "Show them what you are capable…"

The coms went completely silent when Zev and Kit´s speeder exploded when he was hit by one of the AT-AT´s attacks.

Nobody reacted or said anything… The euphoria everyone had because of the two wins they had managed to pull out by destroying the previous walkers vanished like smoke; when they lost two friends in just a second. And there was absolutely nothing left of them. Rogue Squadron hadn't had any casualties since they had been created, and in less than twenty minutes three of them were dead already.

Suddenly, everyone held their breath when their leader's fighter started falling down after being hit as well.

"Luke!" Mara shouted, now completely worried "Luke! Answer me!"

"Hobbie! Mara!" the falling pilot screamed "I've been hit!" and everyone felt the relief of at least knowing he was alive "I can't go on! Wedge, protect the base…!" And then the communication was cut off.

"Luke! Luke!" The redhead called in desperation. She wasn't sure what was happening to her anymore, but she had completely lost control, "Answer me! Luke!"

"Mara, easy! Probably the comms just went off because of the crash! Luke will be okay!" Her pilot tried to make her calm down and think clearly, and that seemed to bring her back to her senses "Mara! Look! There he is! Wait… What is he…? Oh C'mon! That can't be true…"

"What?!" asked the female pilot, still feeling nervous "What´s wrong?!"

"I think the commander just destroyed an AT-AT all by himself with a lightsaber… Yup… I see him hanging from a walker's belly. Don't worry, Mara, he can handle himself."

Right in the middle of that conversation, the shield generator was blown up to pieces "Shit! We lost the generator! Rogues, fall back!" the new leader ordered. "Go get your X-wings! Remember the plan, only two fighters with each transport, try to make sure they pass the blockade safely! We'll meet at the gathering point, may the force be with you!"

Everyone made clear they had the instructions and they flew towards the place where the X-Wings were waiting for them, far away from the battle they had just lost.

….

A few minutes later, three snowspeeders landed in the designated place and the six Rogues jumped out of them. Everything that just happened could be read in their faces. They had lost three friends, and Luke had crashed. Everything that had happened could be defined as an overwhelming defeat for the alliance. Apparently, a lot of transports managed to pass the blockade and jump to hyperspace, but there were reports of at least eleven of them being destroyed. There were at least two hundred people dead, plus all the casualties from the battlefield. Also, everyone who was still in the base was in danger, since the Imperials had gotten inside.

Everyone exchanged sad looks until Mara looked around and asked after she counted the ships "Where is the commander's starfighter?"

The other pilots did the same and looked around, looking for Luke's X-Wing with R2 inside it, but it wasn't there "Maybe he went off already?" Wes guessed.

"I don't think so," Countered the redhead. "When Wedge ordered retreat, he was still with the AT-ATs."

"Maybe he went back to the base," said the Corellian pilot. The Emperor´s hand suddenly turned to look at him; that was literally the worst idea he could have mentioned.

"And why would he even think about doing something that stupid?"

"Well…" explained Wedge. "I heard they hit high command, and neither the Millennium Falcon or Princess Leia are in the evacuation count yet. You know how he is, he might have gone to help…"

"Oh for Force sakes! That Bantha Brain!" She shouted.

"Mara!" Tycho called her "Mara, wait! Where the hell are you going?!" But the redhead wasn't listening to him anymore. She was walking fast towards the half-destroyed Echo base.

…..

"Why are you still here?!" asked a very annoyed princess Leia when Han Solo stepped into the command center.

"I heard the command center has been hit," he just answered.

"You have your clearance to leave!" she said, not paying him much attention. She was too focused on making sure every single one of the base's residents were evacuated correctly.

Han wasn't happy with the answer, though. They might have their differences, but he was not going to allow Leia to die under the debris. So he jumped over some broken energy cables so he could get close to her "Don't worry, I'll leave. But first I'm gonna get you to your ship."

"Your Highness, we must reach this last transport, it's our only hope!" C3PO informed with a little begging tone in his robotic voice, but she wasn't listening to anyone. She just tossed Han and the droid out of her way and kept giving instructions.

"Send all troops from sector twelve to the south port to protect the fighters." A new explosion interrupted, making the earth shake and the protocol droid almost fell over Han. Then the speakers blared out.

"Imperial troops have entered the base! Imperial troops have…"it couldn't finish the sentence because Echo base ran out of power.

"C'mon, let's go" Han touched the young girl's arm softly, and she looked at him. This time the Corellian´s eyes didn't have arrogance or cockiness, just sincere worry about her, and maybe that was what finally made her come to her senses.

"Give the evacuation code signal…" She ordered the last engineers working, with a defeated tone and letting herself be led by Han. "And get to the transports!" She added as the last command before disappearing into the hallway.

….

Mara advanced across Echo Base´s half destroyed ice hallways. She cursed under her breath that she wasn't able to project the force so she could sense her surroundings; that way she would be able to locate Skywalker in the blink of an eye.

She grabbed her blaster but put it on stun. There were imperial troops here, and none of them knew her identity, and they would mistake her for another rebel. She didn't want to kill them.

She could hear explosions and blaster fire, but that didn't make her stop. She ran across the snow labyrinth until she ran into some company, but not what she had expected. Three white dressed ice troopers with hoods, aimed at her as soon as she appeared in their sight. Her instinct was to roll on the floor and she did well because she dodged the three blaster shots, which would have killed her, otherwise. She kicked the first one in the knee without even standing up, and she shot the second one and made them fall unconscious.

The third one was already aiming his blaster at her head, but when she stood up she grabbed their arm and made a sudden move to dislocate their shoulder. While she still had them, she firmly grabbed the trooper with his broken knee and kicked the weapon out of his hands. She let go of the trooper she was holding and stunned him, just to turn around and stun the last one, while he tried to take his weapon back. The redhead sighed and just kept on walking.

…..

Han didn´t let go of Leia's hand, while C-3PO followed them, continually asking for them to wait for him. They had almost reached the last transport waiting for delayed people. However, a huge explosion made some ice blocks to fall down from the ceiling and block their way. Han growled in annoyance, but he didn't lose his temper and spoke to the coms "Transport, this is Solo. Take off, I can't get to you, I will take her off on the Falcon, c'mon."

Just like that, they turned around and started walking the opposite way to try and reach the hanger where the Corellian freighter was waiting for them...but they needed to basically get to the other side of a base full of imperials. It was not going to be easy.

They turned a corner. Han raised his blaster immediately, aiming for the person they had just met, who was aiming back at him.

"Mara!" Leia said when she recognized her, and the smuggler lowered his weapon, sighing in relief. "What are you doing here?" asked the princess."

"Luke's X-Wing is not where it should be. I came to see if he came on back looking for you two…" Leia looked at Han, and she shook her head."

"No… I don't think Luke is here. I believe his fighter was a little away from the others, or at least was there when he landed it before the battle."

"And why, in the force's name, would that stupid farmboy do that?" the redhead asked, she was starting to get annoyed by that whole situation. Leia was about to answer, but Han interrupted.

"Look, I hate to interrupt this interesting conversation about the kid…but we need to get out of here," he said. "Don't worry, Luke can take care of himself, he has that Jedi force stuff with him and he is one of the best pilots I know… Red. I think it´s best for you to come with us. You won't be able to reach your X-Wing, the base´s accesses are destroyed and there are no transports left, I am already going to Home One with a passenger, I don't mind having an extra one."

Mara thought about her options and she saw that was the best "Alright, let's move."

They advanced a few meters until they ran into a blaster fight. The rebels were trying to hold back some Imperials who were entering the base across a huge hole they made in one of the ice walls. It was going well for the rebels, as they were able to kill most of the stormtroopers. At that moment, there were only four invaders left against eight defenders. Soon enough, the imperials fell, and a huge feeling of relief came over the victorious rebel, but then Mara got completely tense as a cold sweat started going down her back and forehead.

"Red?" asked Han "Are you al…"

"We need to get out of here…" She suddenly said.

"Mara? What are you talking about?" Leia reached to touch her arm but the redhead turned around to look at her.

"We need to go now, Leia! Let´s go!"

No one reacted until the sound of a deep breathing filled the place. It was low and robotic, and it seemed like it had to fight for every breath of oxygen; but it made every single person there to look at the entrance again. Some of the rebels gulped, while some aimed their guns and waited for the new enemy to arrive. Han did the same, but Mara grabbed his arm "Are you freaking nuts, Solo?" She yelled, shaking him "You can't win! Let´s go! We need to get to the Falcon" You need to get Leia out of here!"

The Corellian stared at her for a few seconds, while the breathing was getting closer and closer… And suddenly a huge ice block flew inside the room and hit two of the rebels there; they crashed into a wall and slipped down, leaving blood behind them; they didn't move again.

That convinced Han "Let´s go."

The three of them, with 3PO following close, ran out of there just when a masked figure, completely dressed in black and with a cape behind him, stepped into the base. Two of the six remaining rebels fired against him, but Darth Vader just blocked the blaster fire with his hand, then he raised the other one to make a part of the ceiling fall down on top of his attackers.

With a gesture, he made the four weapons remaining in the rebels' hands to fly away. He flexed his hand in a claw shape and aimed it at one of them. He immediately grabbed their throat and then he started choking, struggling to breathe.

Six imperial troopers showed up, following the Sith Lord and opened fire, killing two of the three retreating rebel soldiers. Still choking his victim, Vader trapped the last one using the Force and made a sudden gesture with his arm. The rebel flew and crashed against a wall head first, leaving a blood mark on it and dying instantly.

Once he made sure the victim he was choking was not breathing anymore he just released him and he started walking after the ones who were running away.

The soldiers were a little ahead of them and had already caught up with the rebels, who were still a little far from the hangar. Han turned around and started firing, taking two imperials down. Mara did the same, though her gun was set for stun, and she put another two unconscious. They had lost too much time and there were three other troopers as they got there, so they needed to look for cover behind some debris. Leia reached the hangar's door. "It´s locked!" she said, desperately trying to open it.

While the princess struggled to open the door, Han and the redhead tried to hold their chasers back "hurry up, Leia!" asked Han.

Mara looked at the door and made a little gesture with her fingers, the door finally opened and she looked at Han. "GO! I'll cover for you!" He nodded and disappeared through the door, still firing to cover for Leia. When Mara got up as well, she just met face to face with Darth Vader. They glared at each other for a few moments and a quiver crossed Mara's spine, she knew the Sith had recognized her… what would his reaction be?

Vader stayed put for a few seconds, while the troopers were apparently waiting for his command.

"Open fire…" he said with his deep voice. Mara reacted quickly and crossed the door before any fire could hit her.

"Run, Red!" she heard Han encouraging her from the Falcon's ramp, while he fired against the imperials chasing her, and she finally stepped into the ship. However, she could immediately see things were not going smoothly. A lot of steam was coming out from the Falcon's walls and Chewbacca was complaining all over the place, the ship made a lot of effort to start running… but it didn't quite start.

"How´s this?" asked Han to the Wookie, while he tried to fix whatever was broken.

"Would it help if I got out and push?" asked Leia sarcastically, and Han looked at her, very upset.

"It might!" he responded in the same tone. The Falcon was still recovering from that forced hyperspace jump they had to do to get back to Home One from the Bothawi system… that damned droid bounty hunter had hit them almost completely and the smuggler had been trying to fix it since then.

"Sir… might I suggest that you?" started asking C-3PO, but the question was cut off by a very clear gesture to shut up from Han "It can wait…"

Mara followed the Corellian to the cabin, the power went on, and it sparked when Han tried to make it work. Mara just punched the panel, and it finally started working.

"Thanks," Han said.

"We are never gonna get past that blockade with this piece of junk…" pointed out the redhead, as an obvious fact.

"There are a few surprises left in this sweetheart." the Corellian countered. The imperials already were setting up a heavy cannon to take down the ship. A blaster came out from below the Falcon and shot a series of quick blasts against them, interrupting the process.

Leia and Mara were in the cabin, sitting on the passengers' spots when Chewbacca finally got in "C´mon! C'mon!"Han hurried his co-pilot. "Switch over… let's hope we don't have a burn out…"Mara raised an eyebrow, the situation was not too great, to say the least. Luckily, the ship seemed to work this time "See?" gloated the Corellian to the princess, who was sitting behind him.

"Someday you gonna be wrong and I just hope I'm there to see it," Leia replied, but he didn't seem to be listening to her.

"Punch it!" ordered Han. Luckily, when the Wookie pushed the start the ship flew out of the hangar, while Darth Vader just looked at the scene like he was not concerned.

 **And this is the battle of Hoth! What do you guys think? I hope I was able to recreate what happened in the movie and to integrate Mara correctly. It´s not one of my personal favorite battles but I think the defeat feeling the rebels have is an interesting thing to explore and write, please tell me what you guys think about it xD**

 **Darth Vader! I know I took my time putting him into the story, but someone like him deserved an epic entrance, I dunno if I made justice to him but I can assure you I did my best. Just for what is worth I was playing the imperial march in my mind the whole time I spent writing that scene. Welp, Mara is in the Falcon and Luke is going to Dagobah… Our couple is split, I am sorry but it was the best for the story and for what I have planned moving forward. Their next meeting will be spectacular, I can promise you that, even though I don´t know how many chapters it will take, there is a lot to write before that.**

 **That´s all I have to say, for now, you know I appreciate every opinion, suggestion or critique on your part so please tell me anything in the comments.**

 **See you guys next chapter, don´t forget to review, be good and may the Force be with you :P**


	11. The Last Jedi Master

**In Obi-Wan Kenobi´s words… Hello there! So I am pretty sure some of you thought this story was never gonna be continued, but as I said many times, I might take my time, but chapters will always come.**

 **I have been busy, schoolyear was at it´s very end, got a new job, other projects, specially for my Youtube channel, so I had to drop the fanfiction writing to a side. But now I´m back!**

 **I know a lot of you have been asking for it, and expecting it, so here we have Dagobah and Yoda. This chapter will be mainly centered on Luke´s arrival to the swamp planet and how he meets our favorite little green Jedi Master.**

 **One again, thank you all for your support and how you guys follow and favorite my story, and specially to those who take a minute to leave a Review… Much appreciated!**

 **MrSergo15: Welp, here you have it xD Enjoy!**

The Last Jedi Master

Luke sighed, sitting in his X-Wing's cabin. Just a few hours ago he had made the hardest decision he ever had to make, even harder than leaving Tatooine when Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were killed. What made this harder was that, when he left Tatooine, he didn't really have a choice, he had lost everything he had and knew. He decided to let Ben guide him, so he could start fresh and become a Jedi like his father, and the right choice seemed clear to him back then.

This time, things were different. He had a responsibility to the Alliance; they were going through a difficult time, particularly after just losing a ground base on Hoth. He had Wedge, Han, Leia...and he had Mara, that redhead girl was the one deep in his thoughts the most, and he didn't want to leave her, and even less after sharing that first kiss. Speaking of which that little act was now filling most of his thoughts, he hadn't allowed himself to think about it during the battle because he wanted to stay focused. He didn't know what got into him, but he didn't regret it at all. He had wanted to confess his feelings to Mara for a long time now, it was true that he didn't actually say it, but the gesture they shared, the promise he made of talking about it put him in an ultimatum situation. The next time they saw each other he was going to tell her. Han, Leia, and Wedge said that there were a lot of chances of her feeling the same thing for him, but he didn't want to be too confident.

A beep from R2 kicked him back to reality "Eh?" He asked, feeling a little dizzy "What?" his eyes went to the translation computer, where his astromech let him know that they had arrived at a planet that matched the description the database had about Dagobah. The pilot nodded, it was the first time he saw the system, but something was telling him that there was no mistake possible.

"Yup, that's it, Dagobah" he confirmed, and then, his little partner beeped a question. Luke smiled before answering."No, I'm not going to change my mind about this." He frowned after making a quick scan with his life sensors "I don't pick up any signals of cities or technology...lots of life forms readings, though... there is something alive down there."

The droid didn't seem convinced, though, and he once again protested about something with loud noises, which made Luke chuckle a little. "Yes, I'm sure it's perfectly safe for droids."

Once they were done with that peculiar conversation, the rebel pilot started to approach to the planet… and as soon as he did it he realized something was going terribly wrong. There was a thick fog covering everything, and it was nearly impossible to see a thing outside the cabin, also the sensors seemed to have gone crazy. R2 started to yell loudly, in clear worry, while the young man fought his ass off to try to keep the ship under control while it fell.

"I know, I know! All the scans are down, I can't see a thing!" He said, looking all around and trying to figure out how or where to fly the best way he could "Just hang on! I'll start the landing cycle!" It actually made things a little better, but that didn't avoid the starfighter to abruptly crash on the planet's surface. Luckily, it didn't seem like anything important was broken, but then the X-Wing's front side started to plunge deep into a swamp.

...

If Luke already had some doubts about the decision of going to that planet, now he was almost completely sure that it had been a terrible idea. His ship was in a swamp, but he wasn't able to get it out of here and was literally trapped on a system without technology or a way to communicate with the outside world. Also, the energy from his batteries and his ration bars were limited, he couldn't stay here forever.

Of course, he could survive by hunting wild animals and feeding on them, but to be honest that idea didn't seem the most attractive to the farmboy.

He was camping with a heater, a portable energy generator and everything he needed to survive was near the ship. He had chosen a place that was easy to defend so they would at least be the most comfortable they could be while that nightmare lasted.

R2 complained a little while Luke finished getting things ready. "What? Ready for some power?" He asked, and when the droid made an affirmative noise he connected the generator to the astromech.

"Now all I got to do is find this Yoda… If he even exists…" He started saying. He wasn't really sure if he was talking to the droid or to himself. There weren't many opportunities to have a conversation here. The problem was he didn't even know where to start looking, this place was the strangest planet he had ever imagined. He shrugged, he would start searching for Yoda later, because now he was hungry. So he took one of his ration boxes and opened it to take a ration bar from it. He sat down and looked around with a disgusted gesture "Really strange place to find a Jedi master…"He confessed, "This place gets me the creeps."

However, the young man started to feel something around him. It was weird, truth to be told "Still…" He said, trying to focus "there is something familiar about this place…" the droid beeped a question "I don't know… I feel like…"

"Feel like what?" the rebel reacted by instinct when he heard an old and playful voice behind him, he turned around, aiming his blaster to the little creature staring at them from the top of a rock.

"Like we are being watched," Luke answered.

The little humanoid creature had green and very wrinkled skin, he clearly was very, very old. He had big pointy ears poking out from his head's sides he didn't really have much hair, just some gray locks here and there. He was a meter tall, his clothes were old and dirtied. He needed to help himself with a stick to walk. His feet and hands seemed more like claws and he only had three fingers in each one of them. The thing covered himself with his stick and shouted in fear "Away put your weapon… I mean you no harm…" He said with the same voice "I am wondering… Why are you here?" He asked then, poking his head out from behind the stick to look at Luke.

He didn't really seem dangerous, so the soon to be Jedi started lowering his weapon. "I'm looking for someone."

The creature seemed interested in that because he stared at him with questioning eyes "Looking? Found someone you have, I would say. Uhm?" He finished the sentence with a chuckle and that made Luke finally put his weapon back in its place, and he couldn't help but smile back. He was fun, in his own way.

"Right…"

"Help you I can… Yes…" The green midget offered, but Luke shook his head.

"I don't think so. I'm looking for a great warrior." That statement seemed to actually seem pretty funny for the creature because he walked down the rock using his stick while he laughed.

"Ohhh… Hehehe… A great warrior… Hehehe" he seemed to be constantly chuckling innocently. He did seem to behave like a child in some way. Even though his tone changed a little to a more serious one when he continued talking "Wars not make one great… No…" Once he finished talking, he approached Luke and started sniffing the ration bar he was eating.

The rebel couldn't help but laugh a little seeing that native's behavior. "Put that down, we…" But when he saw the green little thing starting to eat it his good mood flew away "Hey! That's my dinner!"

He took the food away from him and closed the ration box to put it away. However, it wasn't necessary because the creature made a disgusted face and spat out what he was chewing "How you get so big eating food of this kind?" He asked.

Young Skywalker sat down a small distance away from his new companion. He sniffed the ration bar and decided it was no longer edible and he threw it away. "Listen, friend… We didn't mean to land in that puddle, and if we could get our ship out we would, but we can't, so why don't you just…" but while Luke whined his visitor just laughed and got up on the table to sneak up on Luke's gear.

"Aaaahhh… Can not get your ship out… Hehehe…" he then started throwing out everything he found in the camp that apparently he didn't find interesting. Ignoring the Rebel´s complaints, until he seemed to be happy with a little lamp he found.

He stepped down on the table and started playing with it. He really seemed to be very interested in it "Hey!" Luke said, trying to get it back "Give me that…"

"Mine!" the creature stated, "Or I will help you not."

"I don't want your help; I want my lamp back" the Jedi complained, "I need it to get out of this slimy mudhole."

"Mudhole? Slimy?" The native protested, getting distracted so R2 could sneak on him with his mechanical arm "my home this is…"

He got interrupted when the astromech got a grip on the lamp and started pulling, trying to take it away from the green dwarf; but the creature held on to it and they started to struggle.

"R2, let him have it…" Luke said, giving up on the situation, while their unexpected guest reached his stick and started repeatedly hitting R2, with a very childish attitude.

"Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" He repeated until he was successful and the droid let it go.

Luke looked at the sky, praying for patience. Things were already bad enough, he didn't want to deal with that annoying thing. "Would you move along, little fella, we got a lot of work to do…"

"No… Stay and help you I will…" He answered, "find your friend, hmm?"

"I'm not looking for a friend! I´m looking for a Jedi master!" The thing's eyes opened a little like he just understood everything.

"Ooohhh… Jedi master… Yoda… You seek Yoda!" he deduced, poking Luke´s chest with his stick, immediately the young pilot decided the creature was worth his time and attention.

"Do you know him?" he asked and got a nod for an answer.

"Uhmm… Take you to him; I will." He said that in more of a serious tone than usual; but it didn't last since he got back quickly to that careless and childish way of talking "Hehehe… Yes, yes. But now, we must eat. Come!" He started walking, helping himself with the stick "Hehe, good food." Luke didn't know where he was heading. Yet, since that green fellow knew Yoda or at least knew of Yoda's name he was the best lead to find the Jedi master. So the Rebel decided it was worth the risk. He got up and ran after him.

….

Mara was sitting, with her feet resting on the Falcon's holo-chess table. Sshe was trying to make up her mind with everything that had happened in what seemed like a millisecond.

She just couldn't believe it. Solo was even crazier than what she had initially thought.

First of all, the fact that he managed to run away from those Star Destroyers with just piloting skills and no lightspeed was nothing but impressive. However, running inside an asteroid field to attempt to get rid of the Imperials didn't seem like the brightest idea. Yet they had survived it, the redhead now thought it was brilliant, and she respected Solo as a pilot even more than a few days ago. In fact, the Rebellion had an incredible set of great pilots that would make any Imperial officer shiver in his boot. The only one she knew who was better than any Rebel was Lord Vader himself. Come to think of it, maybe Skywalker could match the Sith Lord as a space pilot… since that mission on Kessel took place Mara had been thinking about how interesting it could be to see those two face off on a space battle. Their only encounter had been during the battle of Yavin and that couldn't be taken into account since that was the first time Skywalker ever flew an X-Wing. The situation was completely unfair since it was a chase inside a very tight place and the outcome of the battle was decided by an external force; the Falcon, to be exact.

But now it was different, Luke had tons of occasions to master the X-Wing. In fact, he was the best pilot in the Alliance already, and he could control the Force in battle, so that matched him even more with Vader´s skillset. It would be very interesting indeed.

Mara looked up at the ceiling and sighed. They were inside a cave on one of the biggest asteroids in the field, trying to fix that piece of junk to get the hell out of here. To be fair, the Emperor´s Hand wasn't able to see a way to escape this situation. They had only been able to delay the inevitable, with two Star Destroyers and Vader chasing them there was no way for this little group of rebels in this broken Corellian Freighter to get away. But the worst of it was that Mara needed to stay there with them, for her mission's sake. Luckily, Darth Vader knew she was there and he would only need a conversation with the Emperor to know he had to capture them alive, not shoot them down. Maybe he thought Skywalker was with them. However, that wasn't likely since the boy was like a damn luminous signal in the Force, and Vader should have figured out that he wasn't already there.

That line of thought led her to think about Luke… She didn't know anything about him and the last piece of information she had that his X-Wing was waiting for him far away from the rest of the Rogue Squadron… that couldn't be good. Skywalker was on to something and he hadn't told anyone, not even Solo or the Princess, so it had to be huge.

The fact that she didn't know where the hell that bantha brain was bothering her, and not having any kind of information, she felt like she was failing. Not having her target located during her job was a huge mistake for the Emperor´s Hand. Luckily, her master contacted her not so long ago, so she had time to figure it out before she had to inform him again.

But she didn't have any kind of clue, and didn't know where to start either. She started thinking that it might be better if they managed to escape from Vader so they could get to the meeting point, maybe Skywalker was already there. Even if that was not going to be the case, she knew she wasn't that lucky.

She sighed… the last time they saw each other it had been clear that the young man was in love with her. By pure instinct she lightly touched her own lips. He had told her they would talk, so she supposed the pilot's plans weren't to stay away for too long.

She shook her head violently, taking those thoughts out of her mind. There wasn't anything to talk about. The Emperor would soon be Skywalker´s new master and then, and only then, would they be able to talk with complete sincerity. They would meet each other fully and everything would go smoothly from there. The young boy was already in love with her after all, so the outcome of that situation between them was absolutely clear. Also, her master promised that he wouldn't put any obstacle for her and Skywalker to be together. Maybe that was why she had reacted that way back on Hoth when he kissed her. She was supposed to play her part, kiss him back or maybe show herself shy and flattered. This was something she had always been good at doing. But this time, he had caught her off guard, she wasn't even sure about her own feelings or how she was going to act around Skywalker… she didn't even know why she asked her master about a future with the young Jedi. Maybe, just maybe, the conversation with the Emperor being so recent she didn't have time to recover before Luke had made a physical show of his love. All those doubts she had in her mind, she just stood in shock.

She wasn't able to think alone too much, though, because a huge noise came from another place of the ship; it was followed by quick footsteps before Leia Organa stepped into the room. The redhead didn't need to use the force to know the princess was altered, and she also suspected it had something to do with a certain smuggler; he was the only person able to make Leia act like that. However, the girl didn't seem angry, more like confused. Mara stayed loyal to her cover and decided to start a chat.

"Leia… Are you alright?"She greeted casually.

"Ugh…" the Alderaanian grunted, covering the distance between them and falling down to sit next to her. She covered her face with her hands for a moment and sighed loudly. "Just a gesture… tell me, how can a gesture suddenly turn everything you ever thought about yourself upside down?"

Mara blinked a few times, staring at the princess for a moment, not really getting where she was going. "Care to elaborate?"

"A kiss, for example… a fracking kiss from a certain man in the most inadequate moment you can imagine, and it fills your head with doubts."

For a moment there, the Emperor's Hand thought that Leia might be a Force user, because there was no way she knew what had happened between her and Luke... Unless Skywalker told her before, he left, obviously.

"Luke… told you about it?" She asked. The surprise in her voice didn't need to be faked. It genuinely shocked her that the naïve farmboy would go around gloating about his conquests even before they happened.

"What? Luke?" The princess asked, seeming also confused."I'm talking about Captain Solo! That… scoundrel! He thinks he can decide what kind of men I like! And stupid me, I didn't push him away or anything or try to stop him, I just stay there letting him kiss me!"

"Oh…" all the pieces connected in Mara's head then. It didn't really surprise her anyway. Solo and Organa had history and everyone who had seen them together should have realized how that was going to end; even though the Princess´ denial was the most normal reaction in that kind of situation."Well, if I know you well… Or at least as well as I think I know you… I don't think there is anyone who can make you do anything you don't want to do, Leia… I seriously doubt that Captain Solo is more persuasive than the Imperials."

"Are you implying I like that…"

"Well, maybe just a little bit? And he clearly cares about you," Mara interrupted.

Leia didn't really like where that conversation was going, so she decided to hold on to the distraction the other woman gave her a few moments ago. "Wait a second…" She sai, "What were you saying about Luke earlier? You mentioned that he had to tell me something…"

"I…" the redhead wasn't expecting that question, and it caught her off guard. She thought they were going to keep talking about Han and that the princess had ignored her little slip, but apparently, that wasn't the case "It's nothing… really…"

"Like hell it is!" the Rebel answered, pointing at her friend with an accusatory finger. "It definitely is something!"

Mara's green eyes stared at Leia's… she was supposed to play a role. Considering the situation, the person she was pretending to be would most likely talk about her feelings and what had happened, so she just sighed.

"I… am not sure…" She started, "I mean, it was a little weird and fast… I didn't even know what to do."

Leia raised an eyebrow, the two clearly liked each other and it didn't really surprise her, seeing what kind of battle they had fought together on Hoth, the young man decided to take a step forward, in his own naïve and idiot way. She didn't expect any kind of super cheesy act anyway, the boy from Tatooine didn't seem like that type.

"Right… I guess that happens to the best of us. How are you?"

"Worried…" Mara admitted. "I don't know… I don't think I reacted the way he expected me to, but he didn't really seem to be worried or mad…"

"Well, it's Luke we are talking about, he wouldn't be mad even if you had slapped him."

Mara smiled lightly, she genuinely didn't still know why the hell she got paralyzed by the perspective of Luke kissing her. This wasn't the first time she had done something like that to complete her seduction act. And seduction was clearly the primary goal of her mission. The redhead was starting to seriously think that she was developing very inappropriate affections for her target, and that wasn't supposed to happen. Luckily, she still had that promise that, once the boy became the Emperor´s new apprentice, there wouldn't be any more troubles.

"Also, let's be honest here… you don't seem like an experienced girl, and you clearly like Luke. It isn't weird that you froze."

"Wh…?" Mara started to ask, feeling a little insulted by that appreciation. However, it was true from the Princess´ point of view. She reminded herself that she was playing a part. "Well… on the Imperial Academy they always forbid you to get close to your companions or superiors, they say the relationship must stay strictly… Professional."

"Yeah, I get it. The Alliance recommends it as well, even though not everyone does it." Leia nodded."Also… it's clear that you are not a person who trusts easily. A relationship like that would imply that you would need to open up more than what you are used to."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you obviously don't trust us."

"That's not true!"

"Okay… by trust, I mean that you don't reveal anything about your past…just what was necessary. I don't blame you. You are relatively new here, but I think you opened up with Luke much more, right?" The princess asked. "Maybe you should think that you might have gotten over that fear of yours. Maybe you are just afraid of naming it or let's say, make it official."

That really hit Mara hard, leaving her speechless. Even though she did try to keep her cover story every moment, she had talked a lot with Skywalker, probably more than what she should have. She had told him a lot of real stuff about herself that no one except her master knew. "You… you may be right…" She finally admitted, looking up.

Don't worry, it's normal to wonder about these kind of things. And now that Luke is away and we face the possibility of not seeing him in a long time it's just natural to ask questions…and to miss him. " She placed a kind hand on the redhead's shoulder, at least it had helped her to forget about her Corellian problems for a while. "Luke can take care of himself, you will see him again before you realize it."

And with that, Leia stood up, gave her friend one last smile and left the room. If Leia still had any suspicions about Mara, they were completely swept away. But the Emperor's Hand didn't even celebrate that fact, she closed her eyes and tried to connect with the Force around her… and dove into her mind to get to that little light remaining there…

 **And here we go. That was the chapter. Yeah it was basically the movie scene with all the Yoda stuff, but I don´t think that should be changed by any means, so there is that.**

 **On another note, I hope I am building Mara´s doubts correctly and kinda making her actually develop a relationship with the other rebels, not only Luke, so as always tell me what your thoughts are because I write this for you guys, and I love to know what you think.**

 **Welp, nothing else to be said, don´t forget to review, seeya on the next chapter. Be good and may the force be with you :P**


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